Review- SHOWCASE PRESENTS TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED VOL. 1

I forgot to take a picture of the spine and I don't feel like digging this back out to take one. Sorry OCD folks! 

SHOWCASE PRESENTS TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED VOL. 1 (DC, First Printing, 2012; Softcover)

Collects Tales of the Unexpected #1-20 (cover dates February/March, 1956- December, 1957)

Writers: Jack Miller, France E. Herron, and other, unidentified writers

Artists: Bill Ely, John Prentice, Howard Purcell, Charles Paris, Leonard Starr, Ruben Morera, Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, Sheldon Moldoff, George Papp, Nick Cardy, Bernard Baily, George Roussos, Jim Mooney, Jack Kirby, and Bob Brown

Tales of the Unexpected is one of those Cold War-tinged, watered down for the Comics Code Authority Twilight Zone-esque light fare anthology series. Alien invasions, ghosts, magical objects (lamps), timestream slips (i.e. broadcasts from the future), living paintings, and other concepts used here were also used so many times in other stories that it is almost impossible to ascertain where they originated.

Issue 9's The Day Nobody Died is the closest thing to a Pre-Code macabre style story. George Roussos was an excellent artist in the 1950s, employing endless solids which are stunning in black and white. His work here is so close to Alex Toth that I had to do a double take and go back to the table of contents to be sure. Roussos would have a decades long career in the industry, although he has no defining run on any title for fans to remember him by. I call guys like him comic book journeyman, as they turned it solid work year after year but never made it “big”. Jim Mooney is another artist who did great work here and, like Roussos, was a journeyman. Mooney is better remembered, though, as he inked Spider-Man on and off over the years.

If you've read one of these '50s titles then you have read them all, although this one boasts a better than average roster of artists. Take a gander at that list above. A lot of Golden Age greats were still doing solid work, such as Sheldon Moldoff (creator of Hawkman), Bernard Baily (co-creator of The Spectre), and of course Jack Kirby (co-creator of every great 1960's Marvel hero except for Spider-Man and Doctor Strange).

Kirby's artwork is in a transition phase here between the rawness and energy of his 1940s work and the refinement of his Silver Age work. Of note is #16's The Magic Hammer, where Kirby tells the story of a man who finds the magic hammer of Thor and uses it for evil. This was five years before he created the character for Marvel's Journey Into Mystery #83. While it is hip and trendy to downplay Stan Lee's contributions to Kirby's co-creations, I have to side with the Kirby Kult about Thor. You can't dispute that Kirby had the idea cooked up. Lee may have added supporting casts to the series, but the rest of Thor is pure Kirby. Look at this panel from the story. It is the exact same pose that he would draw Thor in on the cover of his first appearance!

Leonard Starr is one of the all-time greatest comic book or strip artists. This was toward the end of his career as a comic book artist, as he was about to graduate to the big time with his nationally syndicated strip Mary Perkins On Stage. If you have never read that series you should check it out, as it is brilliant.

I enjoy reading stuff like this before I go to bed, when the house is quiet and the kids are sleeping. I would be all over a Volume 2 of this, although four years have passed and this line of books is pretty much dead in the water. This would make a great line of Archives, although the market has shown that the audience for material like this is small. Oh well.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- These 500+ page black and white phonebooks are a bargain. Condescending fans call them coloring books, whereas I prefer to refer to them as poor man's Artist Editions.

Linework restoration: There is no way that DC is going to do restoration on 510 pages of story at a $19.99 MSRP. That means that the film for this stuff is in perfect shape, as there are no line dropouts, no murkiness from scanned printed comics or any other imperfections.

#12's The Indestructible Man was altered when it was reprinted in House Of Secrets #96, and the altered header with series host Abel giving the introduction is present here.

Paper stock: Good weight pulp paper.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback. There are reports of these falling apart, although I haven't had any of my Showcase Presents books fall apart.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover. I find it interesting that DC leaves the interior covers blank, as they are normally printed with advertisements for other books available from the publisher. 

Review- SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE SPECTRE VOL. 1

SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE SPECTRE VOL. 1 (DC, 2012; Softcover)

Collects Showcase #60, 61, 64, The Spectre #1-10, The Brave and the Bold #72, 75, 116, 180, 199, DC Comics Presents #29, and The Spectre stories from Adventure Comics #431-440 and Ghosts #97-99 (cover dates February, 1966- June, 1983)

Writers: Gardner Fox, Bob Haney, Mike Friedrich, Steve Skeates, Denny O'Neil, Mark Hanereld, Michael Fleisher, Len Wein, and Paul Kupperberg.

Artists: Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Charles Cuidera, Neal Adams, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Jerry Grandenetti, Bernie Wrightson, Jack Sparling, Nick Cardy, Jim Aparo, Ernie Chan, Jim Starlin, Romeo Tanghal, Michael R. Adams, Tex Blaisdell, Tony Dezuniga, and Rick Hoberg.

The Spectre rules! This skips his still largely uncollected Golden Age run and jumps ahead to his Silver Age revival, which was 21 years to the cover date of his previous appearance. They seem to try to keep the premise of the Golden Age Spectre at first. The Showcase issues and the first issue of his series are okay if a little boring. Neal Adams comes in for #2 and stays a few issues. I enjoy the ones with Wildcat, now 20 years older and past his prime. I recently read some of his early appearances in The Comics Cavalcade Archives.

Things are good but don't get great until Adventure Comics #431, which ushers in the reinvented Spectre after a five year absence in 1974. Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo crafted a brilliant storyline of wrath and retribution. The Spectre deals out ironic deaths to criminals. This is pretty gritty stuff that pushed the Comics Code Authority to it's limit. There is an old, long out of print trade paperback which collects that series in color which I read years ago.

These black and white phone books are a love and hate thing for me. DC usually screws up the coloring in their collections, so this is something of a plus for them. They can also serve as poor man's Artist Editions books.

I wish that DC would continue the Golden Age Archives and continue into the Silver Age and beyond. I have the first two '90s series trades but couldn't even begin to guess when I will get around to reading them.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This being DC, multiple appearances are omitted that were published during the timeframe of the material presented in this collection. Par for the course. At least they didn't omit any story pages in this collection like they did in so many others during the period that this collection was published in.

Linework and restoration: Everything looks tight and clean.

Paper stock: These books use the cheapest pulp paper available. When you get 624 pages at $19.99 MSRP you can't really complain, though. These are designed to be cheap reads.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Thick waxlike lamination.

 

Review- BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL VOL. 1

BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL VOL. 1 (DC, Fourth Printing, 2012; Softcover)

Collects Batman: Vengeance Of Bane Special No. 1, Batman Nos. 491-500, Detective Comics Nos. 659-666, Showcase '93 Nos. 7, 8, and Shadow Of The Bat Nos. 16-18 (cover dates April- October, 1993)

Writers: Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant

Artists: Pencilers- Jim Aparo*, Norm Breyfogle*, Graham Nolan, Jim Balent, Bret Blevins*, Klaus Janson, and Mike Manley*; Inkers- Scott Hanna, Tom Mandrake, Bob Wiacek, Josef Rubinstein, Dick Giordano, Steve George, Terry Austin, Rick Burchett, and the Pencilers with * by their name.

Believe it or not, I have never read any of these comics before now. I am not a DC continuity expert by any stretch of the imagination so I don't know what fits, what doesn't, which Earth this is, so on and so forth. My review will be solely about the stories in the stories in this book.

Those who have seen The Dark Knight Rises will see many scenes that seem familiar, since much of the material of this 630-odd page book was translated right to the big screen. Unlike the movie, once Bane breaks Bruce Wayne's back a guy once named Azrael becomes Batman. He does all of the requisite '90s hero things, all extreme and brutal with a new, now horribly dated costume redesign.

I enjoyed the gauntlet that Bane made Batman go through with villains like the Joker, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, etc. Bane didn't really beat Batman fair and square in my opinion because of this, though. Batman was mentally and physically exhausted by the time that he fought Bane for real.

 

I am the Scarecrow. That looks a lot like my book room.

The writing in this book is good and the story continuity is tight while the artwork is hit or miss. You get some great stuff by Jim Aparo and other stuff that falls somewhere in the middle. It works for what it is. I enjoyed this book, to be honest with you. This event seems to polarize fans, but twenty years later it's history. Looking forward to reading Volume 2 someday.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

Buy BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL VOL. 1 TP at InStockTrades!

The OCD zone- I am a sucker for these phonebook style trades. I don't know why, but give me a complete run of something in one chunky brick and I am far more likely to buy it than I would be buying three smaller books at the same price point.

There is a typo on the page in the back of the book with the cover for Batman: Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules The Night TPB cover. It is incorrectly titled Batman: Knightfall Part Two: Broken Bat TPB.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Batman #500 variant by Joe Quesada and Kevin Nowlan. (2 pages)

Batman: Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat TPB cover. (1 page)

Batman: Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules The Night TPB cover. (1 page)

Linework and Color restoration rating: 4.75 out of 5. Things look tight and clean to my eye, with only one or two pages looking marginally off.

Paper rating: 4 out of 5. The mando paper is only marginally thicker than the stock found in the Showcase books. While it is nice that it has zero glare it feels a little lightweight for my taste. I also worry about it yellowing like my old Alan Moore Swamp Thing trades have over the years. DC collected edition fans are a curious lot, as they not only want the books to collect a run, but they want the exact same crappy grade of paper used in the original comics. I don't understand it at all. It would be like buying a Blu-Ray and preferring it to be presented in 250p as it was originally mastered rather than remastered in 1080p...since that is how it looked when it was originally released.

On the flip side, this is also inexpensive, so I will just view it as a full color Showcase Presents phonebook and sleep well at night. Truth be told, when I descended down this collected editions rabbit hole 10+ years ago, I liked Masterworks and Essentials and that was about it. If the Essentials were in full color (like the Epic line nowadays) then I would have been perfectly fine with the cheaper paper. As the years have rolled by I have become more accustomed to higher end books and the price points involved with them.

Binding rating: 4.25 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback. These fat books always seem pretty solid to me.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. Nice thick waxlike lamination.

Review- THE ENEMY ACE ARCHIVES VOL. 1

THE ENEMY ACE ARCHIVES VOL. 1 (DC, Second Printing, 2002; Hardcover)

Collects Our Army At War Nos. 151, 153, 155, Showcase Nos. 57, 58, and Star Spangled War Stories Nos. 139-142 (cover dates February, 1965- January, 1969)

Writer: Bob Kanigher

Artist: Joe Kubert

DC was liquidating their Archives stock a couple of years ago. It was not uncommon to find boxes of them at comic conventions or in comic shops selling sealed copies for $20. I grabbed both of these Enemy Ace Archives with no real knowledge of the title. One of the greatest joys of collecting comics, especially the collected edition variety, is that all comics from all eras exist simultaneously. I can just as easily discover Enemy Ace in 2014 as I can The Sixth Gun. It is the relative affordability of collected editions that has leveled the playing field in terms of access to vintage material such as this. 

Enemy Ace is the story of Rittmeister Von Hammer, “The Hammer of Hell”, a “human killing machine” Germain airplane pilot in the days of World War I. He flies his tri-wing crimson fokker in battle against French and English airplane fighter pilots. The fact that this book is written with the German as the hero a mere twenty odd years after World War II is curious. Hogan's Heroes was a television series around this time that made Nazis seem almost palatable to people. I wonder if there were some Anti-Semitic leanings in the country at the time. It just seems strange to have the star of the series be the enemy of our country. Or maybe I am reading something when there is nothing.

While I have no interest in World War I or dogfights in the sky, the writing and artwork are of such high quality that the material transcended my perceived limitations of the genre. Indeed, Von Hammer is a man of honor and filled with guilt and regret. His only friend is a black wolf that he sees whenever he goes into the forest for shooting practice. If not for one encounter with a woman it would almost seem as if the wolf was a figment of his imagination, which would be infinitely more interesting.

The original batch of issues were published in 1964 and 1965. The strip was resurrected in 1968 due to popular demand. The first batch was set in 1917, while the second batch mentions 1914. There are no occurrences that would disrupt the continuity if this is indeed the case. 

There is a recurring antagonist called the Hangman who is eerily similar in appearance to Hooded Justice in Watchmen. Seeing as how Alan Moore based most of the characters on 1960s Charlton heroes it is not a stretch to think that Hooded Justice may be an homage to the Hangman. 

While this was a very enjoyable read it is apparent how out of step with the times that DC was. Marvel was so much hipper than DC during the '60s.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- DC Archives are wonderful books with really high production values. It makes many of DC's current collected editions choices all the more frustrating. DC knows how to make quality books and chooses not to.

The covers to Our Army At War #153 and 155 are not included.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Foreword by Joe Kubert (2 pages)

Linework and Color restoration rating: 4 out of 5. Most of the linework looks really good, but Showcase #58 is somewhat murky. There is also some pixelation in that issue.

The original color palette is maintained for the most part. The problems I have with it mostly stem from the occasional lazy airbrush gradient blends. While the spirit of the original comics is maintained the blends are sometimes harsh and unpleasant to look at if you have original comics (or scans of them) to compare side by side. It should be noted that this critique is being done with “2014 eyes”. There have been leaps and bounds in the technology and techniques used to restore these books since this book was released. This was a perfectly serviceable restoration job for the time that the book was published. Comparing this book's restoration to modern collections would be a lot like taking a mastering job done for a 2002 DVD and playing it on a modern high definition television and pointing out the limitations in the resolution compared to a Blu-Ray. It is not an entirely fair comparison. It should also be noted that DC's restoration techniques were the gold standard at the time of publication.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. This paper is the ultimate. Dull matte finish coated stock with a slightly creamy color to it, like the original pulp paper had when the book was brand new. I love the look of pulp paper when it is mint. I loathe it when it is yellowed or browned. This paper is the best of both worlds.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Smyth sewn binding, 8 stitches per signature. Book lays completely flat. Again, the quality of this book only makes the cost saves DC has done on so many modern collections even more maddening.

Buy THE ENEMY ACE ARCHIVES VOL. 1 HC at InStockTrades!