posted March 25, 2002 03:42 AM    

To start off, I'm copying my list from page 3 of the 70s topic with my Favorite Superman Stories of the 60s (posted under my prior user name The Time Trapper.)

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Top Ten Superman Stories of the 1960s (in no particular order)

SM 141 - Return to Krypton - probably my fave, truly ahead of it's time (FYI for collectors, I believe it was reprinted in Superman #232.)

149 - Death of Superman - the classic, a real sense of loss at the end, even though it's an imaginary story. (Reprinted in #193)

156 - Virus X - Swan/Klein at their best, don't know why (maybe the superior coloring?) but the art just stands out more so in this issue

158 - The Kandor story - great intrigue, Swan Kryptonscapes at their best

162 - Superman Red & Blue - just a fun wish fullfillment (Ever wonder what happened to Superman Yellow? Daredevil probably knows.)

164 - Superman Vs. Luthor - mano y mano, the best "personal" battle between them, really felt the long time rivalry come to loggerheads.

167 - Luthor & Brainiac - their first team-up, great characterization and origin story, DC silver age at it's best

Action 300 - Superman Under A Red Sun - almost a wistful sci-fi tale (I recall there was a big goof at the ending; switched in midstream deus ex machinas.)

292 & 294 - Luthor kills a robot - an interesting morality tale, loved the covers

Superman Ann 4 - Villains of Space & Time - Okay, not original material, but the best 60s DC Annual by far for my money, and it also has the great eyecatching Legion feature (which I feel was decisive in establishing the Legion as a "real" group in the DC universe.)

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Most of these stories involved Lex Luthor, truly the #2 character in Superman comics during the 60s.

Post your list!

I'll post later my top ten things I loved about Krypton.

If Swan and Boring are the top two supes artists of 60s, who's #3? Is there a #3?

.

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S.P.I.D.E.R. Agent: "Get away with it? I think we will! There is no good, no evil, only strength and cunning, and we have those! Ha ha!"

Dynamo: "FOO to you and your bunk philosophy!"

posted March 26, 2002 03:41 PM    

I've discovered that good reading copies can be found at swap meets--for some of the less in demand issues that is. Fat chance ever finding a good copy of Superman 199.

Luckily, even though torn and tattered, I do have a copy of 199 with cover. That's the ish with the first Superman & Flash race, and it's a nice issue, but I can't fathom why it is so far beyond the price of the issues surrounding it. Even well beyond the usual price for 200, which I got for a nice price in near mint condition on sale for not much cash back in January--my original copy is in pretty poor condition with a detached torn cover.

So mostly in the last few months I've been getting better copies of the comics I already have or had from the sixties. Last weekend I managed to get Action 351, and 353 in good condition to go with my copy of 352 I got a couple of months. Now I bought and read 351 and 352 back in the sixties (my original copies of those are both missing covers now and in pretty poor condition), but I never did find 353.

So I read all three this morning. This is the story of ZHA-VAM, and I never did know his origin until I read 353 this morning and all was revealed. Interesting that he's yet another one of those golem kind of characters--this time fashioned from the clay provided by Prometheus and given the powers of six gods and heroes on ancient Mount Olympus and sent forward through time to do battle with the upstart Superman.

Not that I would put these issues forward as the best of Superman. I feel that the early sixties Superman is the best, but try finding good reading copies of those...prices are high on most books prior to 1966.

posted March 26, 2002 05:53 PM    

He's sort of like what Irv Novick or Bob Brown were to the late sixties/early seventies Batman.

Then, from an objective standpoint, although I never liked his version, you have to consider Ross Andru as really the artist of the late sixties Superman--doing work both in Superman/Action and in World's Finest.

posted March 26, 2002 10:33 PM    

I.E., Action 292 & 294, the great Luthor Kills A Robot two-parter than reads like it was written by Hamilton and really provides a novel take on death and responsibilty. Also the classic Action 300, Superman Under A Red Sun. He was able to convey the desolation of the distant ravaged Earth.

posted March 27, 2002 11:04 PM    

One story I do have is the Super-Menace one from 1960, drawn by the great Swan-Klein team, and written by Siegel.

Yet another bit of tinkering with Kal-El's Earthward journey sees him have an encounter with an alien device which accidentally creates a duplicate of the baby, spaceship and all. We know where Kal the original landed, but the duplicate baby lands elsewhere and falls into the hands of gangsters Wolf & Bonnie.

While Clark Kent is being raised to be law-abiding and generous, the duplicate Kal-El, seemingly possessing all the powers of the original, is raised by Wolf & Bonnie to be a super-crook. All the while, the kid thinks his gangster parents love him and are proud of him, but they secretly care nothing for him and are just manipulating him.

As the Kal-El we know grows to adulthood, and becomes famous, his super-duplicate (who is immune to the effects of Kryptonite) grows up in secret, his "parents" fostering in him an intense hatred of, first, Superboy, then Superman. The adult duplicate can hardly contain himself, but Wolf insists he wait till Wolf himself gives the OK to attack Superman and reveal Super-Menace's existence.

Wolf eventually makes a deal with a syndicate of crime lords to become their president if he has his Super-Menace son destroy Superman. They give the OK, and Wolf sends his "son" to attack Superman. For Super-Menace, it is the realisation of his life's ambition, to kill Superman for his "proud father".

Once Super-Menace has left, Wolf boasts that he and Bonnie "pretended to love that freak" for their own selfish ends. The super-criminal, however, has looked back with his super senses and heard every word.

Knowing his parents never loved him, but just used him, Super-Menace flies into an even greater rage, partly fuelled by intense jealousy at Clark's loving upbringing.

Superman meets his super-duplicate and they do battle. At one point Superman notices, with x-ray vision, that his duplicate is not human, but a "force manifestation" -- an unearthly force manifested in human form. This bit of news devastates Super-Menace and intensifies his jealousy. He uses Kryptonite to bring Superman to death's door, but he can't bring himself to finish off the Man of Steel. Super-Menace is surprised to find he takes no pleasure from watching Superman die. "Maybe Wolf and Bonnie Derek didn't extinguish the last spark of decency in me..."

In a stunning piece of reasoning, Super-Menace decides that if his parents lied about loving him, they could have lied about everything, including their justification for Superman's murder. He releases Superman from the Kryptonite trap and confronts his parents.

"My life could've been a blessing, but you, with your rotten cunning, twisted it into... something terrible..."

Superman, recovering from the Kryptonite, arrives in time to see Super-Menace abandon his human form and become pure energy -- the blast of force killing Wolf & Bonnie.

posted March 27, 2002 11:08 PM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by India Ink:
On the matter of artists, I think Al Plastino is worth a mention simply because he was always there providing art.

He's sort of like what Irv Novick or Bob Brown were to the late sixties/early seventies Batman.

Then, from an objective standpoint, although I never liked his version, you have to consider Ross Andru as really the artist of the late sixties Superman--doing work both in Superman/Action and in World's Finest.

On the other hand, one should probably consider the whole Superman Family. For the whole Superman Family you have Kurt Schaffenberger. But you've also got John Forte, Jim Mooney, Pete Costanza...

---

Ross Andru -- yeahhh!

posted March 27, 2002 11:17 PM       

Virus X:
I'd read a few issues of this serial as a younster, and I LOVED the final chapter when all the world thought Superman dead, and the JLA's solution.

"100 Years: Missing, Lost, Or Stolen!"
I finally found this issue of Action after having read it years ago. Fun story, but DC ignored it right after its publication.

"Exile"
A group of alien robots get rid of all evil and natural disasters on Earth. Superman, feeling he is no longer needed, leaves Earth and settles on a red sun planet, presumably forever. I've always loved this 2-parter.

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Robin: "Holy Oleo!"

Catwoman: "I didn't know you could yodel."

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posted March 27, 2002 11:21 PM    

Narrative: "Off in Smallville, the real Kal-El is taught a proper respect for the rules of society."

posted March 28, 2002 01:24 PM    

Since the death of Leo Dorfman (in the mid-seventies) it doesn't seem to me like any writers have really felt happy about writing Lex Luthor. They've come at the character as a problem to be solved, and they've done this by side-stepping the Luthor character entirely and writing Lex as Victor von Doom, Ra's al Ghul, Professor Zoom, or the Kingpin. All of those are great characters but they're NOT Lex Luthor. And Lex Luthor should not be a rip-off of them.

But in the sixties, when getting an assignment to write a Lex Luthor story, it's like the writers walked out of Mort's office with a spring in their step thinking to themselves--yahoo, I get to write about Lex Luthor!

posted March 28, 2002 01:31 PM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aldous:
Superman vs. Super-Menace

I forgot to make a point of mentioning one of the most bizarre props in any Superman story ever -- the little Lone Ranger-type burglar mask worn by Superman's duplicate.

---

Gotta agree that domino mask was kinda strange, yet it remains as the "identifying icon" of the story.

I never really considered if it was Klein who inked the book, but I guess he did. The line work is close enough and perhaps he used the brush a little more than in the middle years of 63 & 64. When I visualize Klein's work, I think of stories with more precise linework, like Virus X and the Luthor stories of those years.

Now that I consider it, the brighter colorist's palette from those years is linked in mind with Klein's cleaner lines, so the darker hues of the earlier Super-Menace story (at least in the original) probably obstructed my recognition of Klein's work.

I guess I just don't associate Klein with this earlier period. Anybody know of his earliest collaboration with Swan? Any examples of Klein collaborations with other DC artists?

------------------
S.P.I.D.E.R. Agent: "Get away with it? I think we will! There is no good, no evil, only strength and cunning, and we have those! Ha ha!"

Dynamo: "FOO to you and your bunk philosophy!"

posted March 28, 2002 05:45 PM    

quote:

---

India Ink wrote:
Then, from an objective standpoint, although I never liked his version, you have to consider Ross Andru as really the artist of the late sixties Superman--doing work both in Superman/Action and in World's Finest.

---

Hmm, yes. I'm enthusiastic about the work of Ross Andru, but I don't really have all that many stories of Superman where he's the artist.

I seem to recall he did a few Rose and the Thorn stories. I'd have to check back through my collection to find the stuff. You can correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, I posted this to say, after re-reading your post, India, that my regard for Ross Andru does not come from his work on Superman. When I was a youngster, I started to get The Amazing Spider-Man, which I absolutely loved -- and, at the time, Len Wein was the editor and writer, and the artist was Ross Andru. (The inker was Mike Esposito.)

So I'll always have a soft spot for this artist....

So...

This leads me to say, I find it very hard to be objective about the abilities of an artist. If I loved the comic books as a kid, I tend to always view that artist's work through rose-coloured glasses. I guess I don't analyse and evaluate the pros and cons of artists' technical abilities the way a lot of you guys do.

quote:

---

bbzero wrote:
The line work is close enough and perhaps he used the brush a little more than in the middle years of 63 & 64. When I visualize Klein's work, I think of stories with more precise linework, like Virus X and the Luthor stories of those years.

Now that I consider it, the brighter colorist's palette from those years is linked in mind with Klein's cleaner lines, so the darker hues of the earlier Super-Menace story (at least in the original) probably obstructed my recognition of Klein's work.

---

posted March 28, 2002 07:07 PM    

Basically the visual difference between pen and brush inking is the variable width of the line. Pens maintain an even linework, with the same width throughout, while a brush, being tapered, allows the artist to play with the stroke pressure creating a range of line width from thin to heavy, including all the possible tapered lines between them.

[Most inkers use both pen and brush, but examples of strong skilled pen inkers are Terry Austin and Barry Windsor-Smith, with strong skilled brush inkers being Russ Manning and Steve Rude.]

This is the usual orientation of pen & brush work in commercial art. However as you move into fine arts or experimental commercial work, that distinction loses validity. Examples: 1) Asian and other brushes with long thin hairs can produce very thin yet long, even sweeping lines with little width change. 2) There are a large variety of pen nibs and quills that allow the user to adjust pressure on their short strokes to get small precise tapering, often used in comics to achieve "feathering."

This is an ancient drawing technique and what artists like Jerry Ordway, Murphy Anderson, and actually nearly everybody use somewhat to give depth to primarily human forms, but other shapes as well. It's done with tiny tapering strokes along the edge of limbs, etc, to suggest small shadows falling away on curved forms.

Klein used it moderately, not as much as contemporaries Anderson or Wood, but he went to it more when it appears he set aside some brushes in mid-60s. Trying to recall his brief later period at Marvel in '68, '69?, after DC booted a lot of artists, it seems to me that he switched to mostly brushwork on the Avengers, and didn't use pens that much, but I'm kinda guessin here long after the fact, as I no longer have those issues.

posted March 29, 2002 07:26 PM    

What are other posters' fave '60s Supes Tales?

posted March 29, 2002 11:29 PM    

Speaking of the whole Superman family of titles, I just compiled an brief index of the issue numbers range of these titles for the 1960s.

The first issues range is the actual chronological match: Jan or Feb 1960 issue to Nov or Dec 1969 issue. The second issues range is my subjective "thematic" range of the 1960s for the Superman family titles.

Your mileage may disagree.

ACTION - 260-383 - 242 (1st Brainiac) - 392 (Last Legion)

ADVENTURE - 268-387 - 247 (1st Legion) - 380 (Last Legion; Supergirl's feature doesn't end till 424, too far into 70s.)

JIMMY OLSEN - 42-125 - 31 (1st Elastic Lad) - 132 (Last Pre-Kirby issue)

LOIS LANE - 14-97 - 1 (might as well make it #1) - 103 (Last Pre-Rose & Thorn issue)

SUPERBOY - 78-161 - 68 (1st Bizarro) - 171 (Last Pre-Legion transfer issue)

SUPERMAN - 134-221 - 123 (Pre-Supergirl Tryout) - 232 (Last Pre-Kryptonite "No More")

posted March 30, 2002 11:08 AM       

But the thing that really struck me was Luthor in it. I think the name of the story is something like "Superman and Luthor's Super-Duel" or something like that. Luthor and Superman fight on an alien planet, but Luthor decides to throw the fight to help out an alien culture. This got me thinking about why I don't like the current Luthor. The old Luthor if things had gone differently in Smallville might have ended up being one of the good guys. On occasion he even was a good guy, not because it benefited him, but because it helped others. The current Luthor only does things out of greed, and never has to actually sacrifice or think about any of his decisions (remember, he didn't even care that he sold his daughter to Brainiac 13).

posted March 30, 2002 05:27 PM    

Most of my favourites sixties Superman stories are from the early sixties, yet I read them when reprinted in the late sixties or early seventies ("The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman" was reprinted in Superman 238, a 64 page Giant--although I did buy the original issue just a couple months ago and now have it in my collection! yahoo!).

Same with the Kandor stories bbz has mentioned (reprinted in a Jimmy Olsen Giant in the early seventies), and the Van-Zee/Sylvia story I mentioned (reprinted in the late sixties). And the Luthor/Brainiac story (reprinted in Superman 245, a Super-Spectacular, in the early seventies--although I also got a copy of the original, 167, around the same time).

posted March 30, 2002 05:32 PM    

"Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl (2-parts)" JS-CS-SK (r: SF 181, AC 251)

posted March 30, 2002 05:39 PM    

The "Return to Krypton" story I refer to is Superman #141, a three part story solely featuring and titled "Superman's Return to Krypton" (which introduces Supes love interest Lyla Lerrol.) It was reprinted in the giant-sized Superman #232 (if ya find a good grade copy, it may run ya $5-7,) and a few times elsewhere perhaps. I imagine it has been reprinted in some DC HC in the last decade, but I don't which. Any help anyone?

The Luthor story you cite is from Superman #164, and is probably my fave Luthor story, but there are several from this period. Most definately I agree: to me the '60s Luthor was the best interpretation ever done.

He was a tragic human character, sometimes even quasi-heroic as he was with the people of Lexor. He wasn't Evil Incarnate as is the current version. He was a flawed, damaged, but brilliant man in the '60s, and as #164 shows, not afraid in the slightest of Superman, really eager and willing to duke it out with him on equal terms, even if his was a poor loser at the end of the fight.

posted March 30, 2002 06:00 PM    

It took place when Supergirl's identity was still kept secret by Superman, with her being his "secret weapon." It's probably from a Jimmy Olsen story, not Supergirl, as my image memory seems to be Swan art, not Mooney.

Anyway, in the story, Jimmy has gone blind and Supergirl tries to help him. She tells him that she's Supergirl - Superman's cousin (and possibly that she's his secret weapon.) He doesn't believe her. So, I believe, much of the story is her trying to convince him (typical Weisinger plot.) The vague image that sticks in my mind is that (I believe) she intially told him while the were both standing on a bridge. That image stands out (and it seems the bridge was yellow, but that's iffy.)

That's all I can recall, but my impression has been that this might be an "incidental" DC purchase by me somewhat earlier than when I recall becoming interested in them in Summer 1961.

The main plot points are that Jimmy was blinded and that Supergirl was trying to get him to believe she really existed.

posted March 30, 2002 10:46 PM       

In the latter story, Jimmy loses his memory and his ID and is actually consigned to the Midvale orphanage where he naturally meets up with Linda Lee!

Supergirl turned up rather frequently throughout the Weisinger line during this period, and it's a shame they apparently made the decision to only archive the Action stories.

posted March 30, 2002 10:55 PM       

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen No. 40
October 1959
Story: "Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl's Pal" (9 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Otto Binder?
Penciller: Curt Swan
Inker: George Klein
Feature Character: Jimmy Olsen
GS: Superman, Supergirl (between ACTION COMICS #256 / 257; origin retold in flashback)
Cameo: Zor-El, Allura (flashback)
Villains: "Big Con" Colby, Thora (first and only appearance for both)
Synopsis: When Jimmy Olsen threatens to expose phony acts at Colonel Colby's sideshow, he accidentally blinds himself with tear gas from his trophy case. Colby dumps Olsen in the desert,
and Jimmy activates his signal watch. Since Superman is at the center of the Earth on a mission , Supergirl (whose existence is a secret) answers the summons. But, try as she may, Supergirl
cannot convince the skeptical Olsen that she has super-powers. Olsen believes her to be Colby's strong-girl Thora. Finally, Supergirl sees Superman returning to Earth's surface, reactivates Jimmy's signal-watch to summon him, and flies away. Superman exposes Colby and takes him to jail. Jimmy, telling Superman how Colby tried to make him believe there was a Supergirl, breaks
down laughing.

posted March 30, 2002 11:32 PM    

As for "Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl," some things struck me when I read it this past week--things I wouldn't have noticed back when I was a kid.

Back when I was a kid I had no idea how old Linda was supposed to be. But I would judge that when the story was first printed she was supposed to be sixteen. While Jimmy was supposed to be? an indeterminant age I guess, but somewhere in his early twenties I imagine. Now the age difference isn't huge, but given their positions in life, it does seem like Jimmy is robbing the cradle. (Of course Supergirl herself was sometimes portrayed as being half in love with her own much older cousin.)

As if tit for tat, Lucy Lane ends up with a pilot who looks old enough to be her father.

And while Jimmy is the older one, he's an idiot, whereas Linda is mature and intelligent for all her youth. Why Jimmy is willing to risk his marriage just because Supergirl happens to think he's cute is beyond me. Oh sure, it turns out Supergirl IS Linda, but hormonally challenged Olsen didn't know that!

posted March 31, 2002 01:57 AM    

Now I have to figure out if I bought it new or picked it up used somewhere months later, either which supports this notion I have that I started reading DC comics perhaps one or two years earlier than I generally assumed (1961,) but was too young to have formed lasting memories about them, and relatedly didn't save them for any appreciable time that would reinforce any such memories.

My logical mind says that this never happened, but too many "charged" snippets of comic memories and images have surfaced over the years to be accounted for by later readings when reason, or adolescent facsimilies, filtered most consciousness. They're vague, but clearly deeper than early adolescence.

Having collected comics for at least 41 years, it's become mildly important to determine when I really began reading them. And actually starting in the calendar 1950s rather than the 1960s, is a "coolness" quota that perhaps only Silver Agers can appreciate!

posted March 31, 2002 06:30 PM    

Thanks also for the reprint info. I'll check around for #343 at local shops. I'm pretty sure that reprint didn't generate the memory because by 1966 I had been a full blown "serious" collector for five years. No, I really think I got it new in 1959 or recently afterward from a neighborhood friend or some store that may have had "a pile o' comics" they were selling.

posted April 01, 2002 05:59 PM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by India Ink:
Hm, I thought I had this story...I was flipping through some Actions this morning and there was one with Jimmy and Supergirl, but I just noted it, I didn't give it a read. However, the artwork wasn't Swan, so far as I could tell, so it may be another one.

---

Actually it was the story originally from Jimmy Olsen, reprinted as a Supergirl "Hall of Fame Classic" in Action Comics no. 343 from 1966. And I guess the art is Curt Swan, but not any Swan art I'm familiar with--being as, I gather, this was inked by John Forte who gives a different look to Curt's work.

posted April 01, 2002 07:37 PM    

Brainiac's first app, of course, is Action 242 - 7/58 (as well as first app of Kandor.)

Two other apps come to mind. Because Brainiac makes no cover app, Lois Lane 17, 5/60, ("Lana Lang, Superwoman,") is not widely known as a Brianiac app. Is it Brainiac's second appearance? The other is well-known because he makes a cover appearance - Action 280, 9/61 (also with the minaturized Supes and friends on cover, and guest-starring Congorilla.)

posted April 01, 2002 09:17 PM       

3rd appearance: "The Menace of Red-Green Kryptonite" from Action #275 (April 1961) by Jerry Coleman and Wayne Boring. Exposure to a hybrid red/green K Brainiac concoction causes Superman to grow a 3rd eye on the back of his head (I kid you not!).

4th appearance: "Brainiac�s Super-Revenge" from Action #280 (Sept. 1961) by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan, and Stan Kaye. Superman and his friends are shrunk by Brainiac, but Superman is able to turn the tables with a little help from Congo Bill and Congorilla!

That's it - his next appearance would be in 1963, in a flashback "Superbaby" story in Superboy #80 entitled "The Lair of Brainiac" which relates how Brainiac kidnapped the infant Kal-El from Krypton!

posted April 01, 2002 10:40 PM    

Also as a Legion fan, I know well that many Superman characters' early appearances are littered with such "do-we-or-don't-we-count-'em" cameos. One thing you say for Marvel, they really didn't do that many cameo panels in the early days.

It is interesting to note that Brainiac (#1) had only appeared three times before Brainiac 5 was introduced as a love interest for Supergirl. It just adds further credence to the view I expressed last year at the end of our Grand Appearances Index over on the old Legion board. [It was a group effort index of all Legionnaires' appearances in Legion series' issues. (More specifically just a grand totaling/scoring of all the appearances with some weight given to starring and featured roles.]

Brainiac 5 was the overwhelming "winner," with nearly 20% more points than second place finisher (who I believe was Chameleon Boy.) Really, Brainiac 5 blew every else out of the water.

My statement upon the final tabulation was that Brainiac 5 probably was the most well-known and often used of all the different Brainiac versions over the years (the main other two "versions" being the robot Brainiac and Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N.)

In fact, I stated then and still believe that Brainiac 5 has had more appearances than all other Brainiac versions combined, and probably has had greater influence on the DC mythos than any other Brainiac.

Like I said, I'm a Legion fan.

posted April 02, 2002 12:29 AM    

I seem to recall he was introduced as a descendant of the original Brainiac before it was decided that Brainiac was an android.

How was this resolved? I don't think I have the answer in my comic collection. Or, if it's there, I've forgotten about it.

posted April 02, 2002 04:59 AM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by bizarro brainiac zero:
Aldous, even though I'm a Legion fan, the history of the Brainiacs will take a little time to explain. So I'm going to defer to more diligent DC historians than I out there to clue ya in. If nobody steps up, I'll come back and try to recall all of it and lay it out for ya.

Or maybe somebody knows a great website with the relevant history of the Brainiacs?

---

Thanks, bbzero!

Now, where's Mr Bridwell when we need him...?

posted April 02, 2002 02:27 PM       

quote:

---

Originally posted by bizarro brainiac zero:

Or maybe somebody knows a great website with the relevant history of the Brainiacs?

---

Ask, and ye shall receive!
http://web.archive.org/web/20050219004139/http://plaza.powersurfr.com/legion_headquarters/rollcall/b5.htm

posted April 02, 2002 04:48 PM    

"Known Relatives: Querl was orphaned at a young age (AD 356). Kajz Dox (father, deceased). Pran Dox (grandfather, deceased), Vril Dox (great grandfather, deceased)."

Brainiac was given a Coluan young man to accompany him, to pose as "Brainiac II," to back up the masquerade of Brainiac as a real live humanoid, and not an android--but the young man escaped from Brainiac and led the Coluan revolt against their computer masters. I think this young man (Vril Dox) even had a "II" tatooed on his palm. So Querl named himself after his heroic great grandfather, calling himself "Brainiac 5." (Over a thousand year period there were only four generations--they were a long-lived family.)

But I want to know about Koko! I'm serious. My only exposure to Action 242 is the few panels reprinted in the Great Superman Book (encyclopedia), which show the entertaining interaction between Brainiac and his pet space monkey.

I like all the Koko appearances that I've seen, but somewhere along the way the cute white creature disappears from the Superman stories. Does anyone have a Koko index?

posted April 02, 2002 08:19 PM    

I'd be amazed if there's a Koko site anywhere. India, you do know they brought back Koko as a "pet" of sorts for Brainiac 5 for a few recent years? I think Koko may have become attached to Brainiac 5 after the Legion fought the original Brainiac in Showcase when some of them where trapped in the 20th century a few years ago, and then Brainiac 5 brought Koko back home to the 31st century. I guessing a little on that rebooted Koko history!.

posted April 02, 2002 09:23 PM       

Of all the Weisinger innovations introduced in the '58-'59 "renaissance", I've always been most intrigued by the evolution of the bottled city of Kandor. The writers seem to grab on to this concept immediately - there were no less than 5 Kandor appearances in the '50s alone:

"The Super-Duel in Space" from Action #242 (Jul. 1958) by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. The original story of Kandor's rescue from Brainiac.

"The Lady and the Lion" from Action #243 (Aug. 1958) by Otto Binder and Wayne Boring. In this story, Superman is transformed by Circe into a lion, and finds the cure in a Kandorian text book!

"The Shrinking Superman" from Action #245 (Oct. 1958) by ? and Wayne Boring (my guess is Binder again). An evil double from Kandor takes Superman's place and even succeeds in marrying Lois!

"The Dictator of Krypton City" from World's Finest 100 (Mar. 1959) by Bill Finger, Dick Sprang, and Stan Kaye. Reprinted in the recent WF Archives volume 2, Kandor is referred to as "Krypton City" in this tale (remember WF was edited by Schiff at the time, so there may have been a lack of coordination here), and its residents as "Kryptonites" !!! This is a great story, with Luthor infiltrating the Fortress, and then Kandor, and taking it by force from its peaceful inhabitants.

"The War Between Superman and Jimmy Olsen" from Action #253 by Alvin Schwartz, Curt Swan, and George Klein. This time, an evil Jimmy Olsen look-alike escapes from Kandor to wreak havoc. They were just chock-full of doppelgangers, weren't they - and we haven't even gotten to Van-Zee yet!

posted April 04, 2002 04:18 AM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Osgood Peabody:
Ask, and ye shall receive!
http://web.archive.org/web/20050219004139/http://plaza.powersurfr.com/legion_headquarters/rollcall/b5.htm

---

Thanks, O.P.

That's just what I needed!

posted April 04, 2002 04:21 AM    

Osgood, I do recall that Kandor was in a couple issues right after 242, but didn't show up again for a year later, in of all places World's Finest (DC did that a lot, didn't they.)

You know that reminds me of a former favorite pastime that's shared by a lot of comics fans, if not all - imaging team-ups or meetings between characters that never happened.

I've wondered about Mon-el's Phantom Zone period in '61 & '62 (before the Legion liberated him,) where he showed up in all the Superman family titles. Except World's Finest. I've imagined him in WF meeting Batman and Robin, as drawn by Swan, in probably what would have been Batman's first encounter with the Phantom Zone. If the new Legion feature in Adventure had been delayed six months, Mon-el probably would have met Batman in WF. He probably would have also met Bizarro and other Superman mainstays. Who else? Kandorians? Or did he?

Too bad villains never really crossed over in DC Silver Age books as they did at Marvel. It would have been fun to see Luthor and Batman go at it back then, or say Superman race Professor Zoom.

posted April 04, 2002 04:30 AM    

quote:

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Posted by India Ink:
But I want to know about Koko! I'm serious. My only exposure to Action 242 is the few panels reprinted in the Great Superman Book (encyclopedia), which show the entertaining interaction between Brainiac and his pet space monkey.

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posted April 04, 2002 03:59 PM    

quote:

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Posted by Osgood Peabody:
"The Lady and the Lion" from Action #243 (Aug. 1958) by Otto Binder and Wayne Boring. In this story, Superman is transformed by Circe into a lion, and finds the cure in a Kandorian text book!

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I really like that story.

"Yes, Superman has turned into a lion, the animal he most resembles... because of his lion's heart and strength..."

posted April 04, 2002 09:22 PM       

When they get around to doing a Superman in the Fifties collection, maybe they'll finally get their due.

Over on the Archives board, I've been campaigning for a Silver Age Action Comics archive line, that would start with the landmark "Super-Key to Fort Superman" from Action #241. After all, why should we have to wait for them to slog through another 15 years worth of stories to get to the good stuff!

posted April 05, 2002 03:27 AM    

I don't have the issues handy, but I'm guessing Koko's around for at least another year, maybe year and half, but of course there's several issues where he's not shown. You should still be able to get any of these issues at .50 to $1 in some stores, that is unless back issues jump up because of the increasing popularity of Legion. If Legion wins the Harvey award for best new series, who knows.

Osgood, though I've only bought one Archive Edition (Legion Vol. #1) because of my "sparse" economics of recent years, I likewise have felt for a while that the Silver Age editions should be started NOW for several reasons. Uppermost being perhaps that those that most want to read and buy them may not give a damn in 15 years. DC needs to set Silver Age demarcation issues for the all the Silver Age titles and start the "Archiving" of The DC Silver Age NOW.

Bluntly, who knows what's gonna happen in 15 years. Not to be pessimistic, but there's a not unreasonable possibility that there may not be any market for them in 15 years, and worse case, with all the non-stop growing entertainment competition, there may not be sufficently healthy comic industry to support such impressive and costly projects, by any publisher.

Let's get the DC Silver Age out in Archives NOW so this essential part of an American genre and art is published in a lasting durable form.

Because, again bluntly, I don't care what protection you use, most of our Silver Age collections aren't gonna make it past another thirty, forty years. Remember, mylars and like only came on the scene after the cheap pulp paper of '60s comics had been exposed to the elements for ten-fifteen years. The clock's ticking on our collections and the viability on "Archiving" The DC Silver Age.

posted April 05, 2002 10:21 PM       

I'm encouraged by the fact that 13 of the 16 stories in the proposed Silver Age Action collection have already been reprinted, so reproduction costs should be minimal.

To wit:

241 -(1st Fortress of Solitude) - numerous times, 1st in Superman Annual 1, most recently in [i]The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told[i]
242 - (1st Brainiac & Kandor) - at least twice - Superman Annual 2 & Superman 217
243 - Superman Annual 3
244 - Superman 187
247 - Superman 193
249 - 80-Page Giant 11 (all-Luthor collection)
250 - Superman 183
251 - (1st imaginary tale) - Superman Annual 3
252 - (1st Metallo) - Superman Annual 3
253 - 80-Page Giant 2 (Jimmy Olsen collection)
254/255 - (1st Adult Bizarro) - 80-page Giant 6
256 - Superman Annual 3

That means only the 3 stories from Action 245, 246, and 248 have never been reprinted to my knowledge.

posted April 12, 2002 09:38 PM       

How about TPB ideas, as a precursor or alternative to an actual Silver Age Archive line?

The recent Superman in the Sixties collection just scratched the surface as far as I'm concerned.

The Kandor Chronicles.
The Greatest Luthor stories ever told.
The Greatest Brainiac stories ever told.
The Greatest Imaginary stories ever told.

posted April 12, 2002 11:47 PM    

Dream collection would be an all Lexor book (although, I think I actually have most of them now). And of course the Kandor book (there are actually too many to fit just one collection).

Krypton, hmmm...While personally I'd like a sixties only book or a collection of the seventies back-up stories--methinks a Greatest Krypton Stories type book would do better in sales. Such a book would include the early Siegel/Shuster version, the later forties and the fifties versions, certain key Weisinger era stories, a few of the seventies back-ups, one or two early eighties stories, and yes I'm afraid it would also have to include some post-reboot tales.

posted April 13, 2002 01:33 AM    

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Posted by India Ink:
And howabout a "Super-Pets in the Sixties" collection?

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