Review- ALL STAR COMICS ARCHIVES VOL. 5

ALL STAR COMICS ARCHIVES VOL. 5 (DC, First Printing, 1999; Hardcover)

Collects All Star Comics #19-23 (cover dates Winter, 1943- Winter, 1944)

Writers: Gardner Fox and Sheldon Mayer (co-plotter) with Jack Kirby (some Sandman rewrites)

Artists: Joe Gallagher, Stan Aschmeier, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Bernard Baily, Joe Gallagher, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Kubert, Cliff Young, Steve Brodie, and Frank Harry

The novelty of reading scarce and expensive old comics has long since worn off for me after nearly fifteen years into the golden age of collected editions. We fans have been spoiled rotten by the embarrassment of riches shoveled at us in all directions in any number of formats. Since the novelty is gone, we are left with two avenues with which to judge these works. One is reading these comics in a purely academic sense, weighing their historical significance against other comics of the day. The other is how does it read through modern eyes in 2017. Modern meaning my middle-aged eyes, for what it's worth, but eyes that have still never read these comic books before.

With that in mind we jump in to this sixth volume in the line (there was a Vol. 0). The award winning formula of the day is still intact. The team starts each issue with a meeting and are suddenly presented with a challenge or mystery of some sort which requires the team to split up in order to tackle the problem more efficiently. This formula is used in every issue. While this might seem tedious or monotonous to a modern day fan, bear in mind that these comics were read primarily by children and that many people didn't buy every single issue of every title back then.

At this point The Justice Society Of America is Hawkman, Johnny Thunder (and his Thunderbolt), The Spectre, Sandman (the second, crappier version), Star Man, The Atom, Doctor Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, and their secretary, Wonder Woman. Yes, that's right, the second most powerful member of the team is left behind to take notes. Societal mores being what they were, I guess that this appealed to the kids of the 1940s.

#20 finds the team fighting their first true super villain, The Monster. While they have fought costumed foes before, this is the first one with augmented abilities. The story in #21 would have done nothing but create multiple divergent timelines rather than solve the problem that the team faced. I wonder how the DC continuity experts have worked that one out. The Psycho-Pirate proved to be a worthwhile nemesis in issue 23.

This was a moderately entertaining read. The stories have no plot twists and the endings are telegraphed a mile away, but these were aimed at children over 70 years ago. It's easy to criticize the lack of sophistication in the writing or artwork here in 2017. This stuff is still important and worthy of your attention. If it weren't for The Justice Society Of America we would never have gotten The Justice League of America for Stan Lee to rip off with The Avengers.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The following are omitted from this book:

On Silver Wings, a half page text story from #19.

Fuller Phun And Archibald Club one page gag strip from #20.

Fat And Slat one page gag strip from #21 and 22.

Who's Who In Whoville one page gag strip from #23.

Pervia Problem, one page text story from #23.

Why were these omitted? DC's collected editions department has little method to their madness.

Linework and Color restoration: Off-white matte coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding. It's a little tight but loosens as you read it.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Thick laminated dustjacket. Casewrap has faux leather grain with foil stamping. 

Review- ALL STAR COMICS ARCHIVES VOL. 0

ALL STAR COMICS ARCHIVES VOL. 0 (DC, 2006; Hardcover)

Collects All Star Comics #1, 2 (cover dates Summer- Fall, 1940)

Writers: Gardner Fox, Jon. L. Blummer, Jerry Siegel, Al Sulman, Evelyn Gaines, Ken Fitch (as William Waugh), Bill Finger, and John B. Wentworth

Artists: Sheldon Moldoff, Chad Grothkopf, Jon. L. Blummer, Everett E. Hibbard, Bernard Baily, Joseph Sulman, William A. Smith, Martin Nodell, Creig Flessel, and Stan Aschmeier

This was a big 64-page anthology series featuring many different super-heroes. I am not sure which Earth this is supposed to be or how it does or does not fit into current continuity, I just know that I love Golden Age DC.

Hawkman is awesome, as he “uses weapons of the past to battle evils of the present”. Sheldon Moldoff is one of the finest Golden Age comic book artists. The original Sandman is of course fantastic, owing much to the Pulps of the 1930s in tone and delivery. Gary Concord, The Ultra-Man is little more than a Flash Gordon retread, who himself was a Buck Rogers retread done right. The original Flash just bores me. I have no idea why. I enjoy the Silver Age reboot but the original bores me so much that I have no interest in buying the Archives of that run. 

Horrid, horrid gradient shade cheesy airbrush coloring as far as the eye can see. 

My favorite is The Spectre. The Golden Age version is the best comic of it's day, and it was the lure of stories not collected in the Golden Age Spectre Archives that had me scoop these All Star Archives when DC was liquidating them a couple of years ago. Hour-Man and Red, White And Blue are all lovable products of their time that put a smile on my face. Golden Age Comics are something of an acquired taste. They wouldn't hold up to most modern readers beyond historical significance, at least from what I gather via online comic communities.

Uh...okay. I am open minded, but I am pretty sure that everyone can agree that this is kind of sick. 

These are all fun, silly escapist reads. At the end of the day that is all that I am looking for anymore. The real world and real life are depressing enough; I don't need that clogging up my escapist hobby.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is one of the thinnest Archives, clocking in at 144 pages. This is because DC didn't include these issues when they launched this line 15 years earlier and fan demand caused them to add a Vol. 0 to the line, which is great.

Linework and Color restoration: Horrid gradient shades as far as the eye can see. This technique looks wrong for the era. I can't be overly harsh though, as viewing this 2006 restoration with 2015 eyes is unfair. Imagine a DVD purchased in 2006. It probably was fine at the time of purchase, and certainly on par or better with everything else that was remastered at that point in time. Fast forward to the Blu-Ray era, and it looks thin and dated with low resolution. The same can be said for remastering techniques in these books. Advances in scanning and coloring technology has allowed the books to look more authentic to the original publications, often surpassing the primitive printing techniques of the time and looking as close to the original art as possible.

I cannot tell if the linework or color palette are authentic to the original publications as I A) do not own the original comic books to compare and B) cannot find scans online to compare with this book.

Paper stock: I love the paper stock used in DC Archives of this vintage. It is a creamy, off-white matte coated stock and is perfect. Why DC has done an about face and uses glossy paper in modern day Archives is beyond me.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, lays mostly flat.

Hardback cover notes: Faux leather casewrap with die foil stamping.

Review- The Golden Age Hawkman Archives Vol. 1

THE GOLDEN AGE HAWKMAN ARCHIVES VOL. 1 (DC, 2005; Hardcover)

Collects selections from Flash Comics Nos. 1-22 (cover dates January, 1940- October, 1941)

Writer: Gardner Fox

Artist: Sheldon Moldoff (4-22), Dennis Neville (1-3)

Golden Age Hawkman totally rocks. I love how Carter Hall is supposed to be some sort of Egyptian reincarnation, but when they show him in ancient Egypt as Prince Khufu, he has blond hair and blue eyes. I can imagine that would be quite a rare trait in ancient Egypt! I also love how he fashions his wings out of the ninth metal, which defies gravity. I love the faulty science in old comic books. There is such an emphasis on fun, and these stories have tons of energy, so I can overlook all of these shortcomings with a smile. Old comic books are charming in their innocence and naivete. 

I dislike it when heroes kill villains in comics, but I now have to rethink this double standard of mine. I love Golden Age comic books, and Hawkman kills villains in literally every single issue. I love it here, so how can I dislike it in modern comic books, unless the character has originally started out that way? I am thinking about the old X-Men “X-Men don't kill” line here, for the most part. I am going to have to get over my upbringing in the era of comics approved by the Comics Code Authority. Hawkman (or Hawk-Man as he is called in the first few stories) kills villains and doesn't think twice about it, and I love it. 

Sheldon Moldoff's artwork is fantastic, very detailed for the era. I was unfamiliar with him prior to reading this book, and I have heard that he only recently passed away. There are times when I kick myself for being unaware of great comic books, and creators, like this. None of us can be everywhere or have read everything at once. It's exciting that there is no shortage of great comic books from all eras for me to discover still. 

The top talent of the '40s worked in newspaper comic strips, but beyond that they mostly worked for DC. There were a few great talents elsewhere, but DC ruled the '40s. I am sad that there are no more Golden Age Hawkman Archives for me to buy.

The OCD zone- Not every issue's cover is included, which is a DC trait that I loathe. They only feature the covers which have Hawkman on them, but my OCD dictates that all covers must be included.

Like all DC Archives, this has high quality, dull matte paper with sewn binding, and lays relatively flat. This is my poison of choice for hardcovers, as I like to read them while laying in bed. The restoration is generally excellent, with the exception of the first few covers. There is visible pixelation on the cover art for those first few covers, likely the result of “primitive” restoration techniques.

It is worth noting that DC's restoration was better than Marvel collections of the same vintage. My complaints are by 2012 standards, but it must be noted for the sake of argument that Marvel was not always producing better quality product than DC. A 2005 DC Archive has better paper, binding, and restoration than a 2005 Marvel Masterwork.

I must reiterate that I am on the extreme end of the anal retentive scale with my OCD for having the best possible reproduction and presentation, exceeding most sane folks' standards. It is my opinion that these are historically significant artifacts, emphasis on the art, and need to be preserved at all costs for future generations to study and enjoy. Pixelation and the occasionally crappy gradient shading mar the reading experience for me. DC keeps the original color palette intact, but sometimes the color blend has obvious gradient shading, which has a cheap, airbrushed look to it and it annoys me. Most folks, again, would scratch their head and say “Dude, what in the Hell are you talking about??” Consider me an audiophile of high end hardcover collected editions.

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Reviews: Hawkman

HAWKMAN (DC, 1989; softcover)

Collects the Hawkman stories from The Brave and the Bold Nos. 34-36, 42-44 (cover dates March, 1961- November, 1962)

I love DC's Chronicles line of trade paperbacks. Aside from the stray issue of Batman as a small child, this is how I got started on Batman comic books. Then the Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Flash ones came out. I bought them all because I like to see how characters got their start, and they collect everything in chronological order by publication date. I ended up ditching the Green Lantern line for the Omnibus and the Wonder Woman line for the Archives (all gathering dust in my backlog, to be reviewed in 2012/2013). Along the way I wondered about DC's "other" iconic character, Hawkman. I thought that he was cool in the SuperFriends cartoon as a kid and was thinking that I would pick up a Chronicles trade paperback if they ever released one. One day I was out gallivanting around various comic book stores and stumbled across this old school trade, with Hawkman's earliest appearances and clocking in at 160 pages...just like a Chronicles trade! I was ecstatic.

The comparisons end there, though, because for starters this trade is a ripoff compared to my beloved Chronicles trades. While the paper is a nicer stock, the cover price on this book is $20, which is more than the current line (priced at $15-18). Even more appalling is the fact that they priced this book at the higher price over 20 years ago! Chronicles trades feature all of the covers in their correct place before each story, but not this book. DC has never had any rhyme or reason when it comes to cover placement in their trades. Some have them in the back of the book, some don't feature them at all. Here we get them 2 per page, 4 covers in all. The problem is that this book reprints 6 issues. The icing on the cake is that one of the 4 covers featured is to issue 45, which is not even reprinted in this book!

I love the faulty science and the charm of Silver Age comic books. DC was zany and borderline ridiculous during this era, especially when compared to their fledgling competitor, Marvel Comics. (Several issues in this book actually pre-date Fantastic Four #1, the start of the Marvel Age of Comics.) Gardner Fox writes this relaunch of his former Golden Age creation, and while I have the Golden Age Hawkman Archive, I have not read it yet. He really expands upon the character in a logical manner, first supplying Hawkman's origin and then the origin of his home planet Thanagar. Joe Kubert handles the artwork, and his artwork is serviceable for the era but is not really my cup of tea. He is sub-par when you compare him to the other heavyweights of this era, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby.

I had fun reading this but will not pursue either of the Hawkman Archives from this era for the usual reasons: Money, space, and time. I don't have enough of any of the above.