World's Finest Part 2

I have to extend this team-up week by one day as I just realized that World's Finest should count not once but twice as a team up book. You see in late 1969 DC changed the format of the book to make it more of team up book for Superman alone. Gone were the monthly team ups with Batman and Robin. Now he was free to join others in their fights against crime. Usually he was teamed up with other members of the JLA but back then that was pretty much all DC had that were hits. Still they could have shown some light on recent flops to let readers know they had not forgotten them. It would have been interesting to see him team up with the Creeper, Hawk and Dove or the Inferior Five. That last one would have been very interesting in a strange sort of way. Perhaps they were thinking of heading in that direction towards the end as in the last issue he is teamed up with the Vigilante. I don't think anyone was that familiar with him at that time. I know I wasn't. With issue #215 the book focused on the super sons of Superman and Batman. I haven't read many of those but they were pretty good but should have been imaginary stories but we aren't here today to discuss those issues.

The new direction for the series actually started off with a bang as its first two issues was a two part story with the now classic race with the Flash. The second team up was with Robin. Why team him up with Robin or Batman so soon? It should have been another member of the DC Universe. However, it was the 200th issue so I suppose they wanted to make sure that for the sake of continuity they made sure it was a member of the old team.

This format only last a short 17 issues for Superman. Sales must have fallen as during that run he teamed with Batman 3 times and Robin once. While I have always love the regular World's Finest team this short run holds a special place in my heart. These were the first time I ever saw Superman team up with anyone other then Batman.

Brave and the Bold

While Batman was helping Superman in Worlds Finest he was also moonlighting by helping others by fighting crime in Brave and the Bold. Like Worlds Finest the early issues were an anthology to showcase the lesser characters that DC published like Viking Prince, Shining Knight, Robin Hood etc. Eventually they started showcasing more major heroes in the book and was the first book to show the Justice League of America and the Teen Titans. Thus the book made two contributions to the comic book pop culture early on. With issue #50 the book did its first traditional team-up with Green Arrow teaming up with the Manhunter from Mars. After that the series would team up heroes more frequently. However, they needed a heavy hitter to be there every month. Eventually they team-up Batman with other DC stars but then were back to random team-ups for a couple of months. Then with issue #74 Batman was the regular star of the series. It was a fun series to read and I was never disappointed with any story. However, I always wondered why Batman. They teamed-up Flash with a few early on so I think he would have been just as well. Superman didn’t have a team up book at the time so why pass him over? Others who I don’t think they owned at the time, Captain Marvel, Plastic-Man and the Spirit, would make great stars of team-up books today.
The book was canceled with its 200th issue. It was replaced by Batman and the Outsiders. From time to time DC has kept the name of the series alive by having brought it back to random team-ups of current DC heroes. They even used it as a min-series to show the early adventures of the Flash and Green Lantern.
Recently they have brought Brave and the Bold back again with more random team-ups. Another that Marvel also brought back recently in the same way is Marvel Team-up with we will talk about later. I hope it works. If it doesn’t the day of the team-up book may be passed.

caption contest

Ok if you can come up with a funny caption for this photo and post it on your site let me know and I will post a link to your site here.

World's Finest

This week is team up week here at On My Mind. Five days of Team up books. The first of these would have to be World’s Finest. It started out as a special issue as the New York World’s Fair Comics in 1939 with Superman as the star. A year later it was released again in 1940 with Superman and Batman but in separate stories. It was made a regular series and early on had various titles like World’s Best. Soon it settled on World’s Finest and an anthology series was born. Yes it was an anthology series. It had various characters and its stars were Superman and Batman together. However, they were in different stories. The series ran for the entire 40’s and a few years in the 50’s before they hit on the winning combo of Superman and Batman. Actually it was Superman, Batman and Robin. If you only bought books for the characters this was a winning deal. It was 3 for the price of one. Now the timing of this was great. Batman started out as the dark avenger of the night. He even shot people in his early days but then took a vow to not do that again or even carry a gun. He did violate that vow once in the 1960’s but to my knowledge has not done it since. Anyway by the 1950’s the comic book industry was under fire from the government as being bad for kids. So Batman was softened up and by 1952 his demeanor was much like that of Superman. They became fast friends and even shared in keeping each others secret identity after they accidentally found them out. Over time a fourth character was added into the mix from time to time. After all Batman had Robin helping him so sometimes Jimmy Olsen would come to help Superman. The 1960’s is the era that I am most familiar with. It was probably boosted by the popularity of the Batman series and reruns of the Superman series. They did a lot of “imaginary” stories with the most memorable being the Kent’s adopting both young Clark and later a young Bruce Wayne. They were raised together as brothers. At first Superboy thinks that the new Batboy who is in town is a super villain and tries to stop him. Soon he realizes that he isn’t the villain and discovers who he is. They team up to become a crime fighting team. In another story, to show that comic books were still fighting WWII in the 60’s they team up to fight a Nazi who was still running a concentration camp. For a time there were even stories of there super sons fighting crime. At the time these were not called imaginary stories but I have considered them that. It was probably the first time anyone had seen the art of Neal Adams and I loved the stories that had them fighting the Superman-Batman Revenge Squad.
These were fun to read for me but by the time the mid 1970’s came around I stopped reading them. Not because I didn’t like World’s Finest but because I hardly ever saw it for sale. The only time I did see it when I bought it at a King Kwik Mini-mart and it was a reprint of one from the 1950’s. I felt cheated as I was hoping for a new story but I did enjoy it. So I guess I wasn’t cheated after all.
The series was running on fumes by the 1980’s and was soon canceled. This was during the pre-crisis days at DC. Batman has changed to being the dark avenger once again and while Supes and Bats are still friends it had been uneasy since then. The book has since been published in prestige format with some success but no monthly on going series has been published since then.

The Griffeys

Here is a photo where I colored the background. It is of the two of them when they were on Seattle together in the early 1990's.

Hostess and the Hulk Gets Even and the Thing and the Ultimate Weapon!

It's Saturday Morning and time for more adventures with Hostess. Since I missed last Saturday I will give you two Hostess adventures today. One with the Thing and the other with the Hulk.

This Day in Music History: Elvis and Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog

On this day in music history, August 18, 1956, Elvis Presley began an 11 week run on the top of the Billboard Charts with is double hit Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog. It is one of the longest runs in the history of the charts. Elvis is listed as one of the writers of Don't Be Cruel just as he was with Heartbreak Hotel. He didn't write either one but it was Col. Tom Parkers way of making sure that Elvis got part of the royalities from the song. The real writer of Don't Be Cruel is Otis Blackwell who wrote other hits like Fever, Great Balls of Fire, Return to Sender, All Shook Up, etc.
Hound Dog was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton who took it to #1 on the R&B charts. In April of 1956 Elvis played Las Vegas. While there he saw Treddie Bell and the Bellboys do a comedic version of Hound Dog where they added the line "You never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine." He liked their version and added it to his list of songs.

All this time Ed Sullivan said he would never have Elvis on his show but that didn't stop Milton Berle or Steve Allen. On Berle's show there was an uproar about Elvis and his pelvic moves and he was blasted by the press. On Allen's show when he preformed Elvis was given instructions to stand still. When Steve Allen got a 55 share that changed Ed Sullivan's mind and he signed Elvis for three preformances.

While he was in New York for the Steve Allen show he recorded Don't Be Cruel and Hound Dog. He was reluctant to do Hound Dog but his producer, Steve Sholes convinced him to record it.

This was the last time ELvis recorded in New York.

On July 25, 1956 the Andrea Doria ocean liner was rammed and sunk off the coast. On board was Mike Stoller and his wife returning from a trip to Europe. They survived and were greeted by Jerry Leiber at the dock who announced to them that Elvis had just recorded Hound Dog.

Don't Be Cruel


Hound Dog

Superman 198

I was going over some old comics today and seeing what I needed to get rid of and what I wanted to keep. To my surprise I came across Superman #198. I remember seeing this cover many times and was interested as to what the story was that was in the book. I was surprised to see it as I don't remember buying it or anyone giving it to me. This was one of those that I decided to get rid of but I had to read the story before I did.

Back in the 1960's you always saw covers that made the story look interesting but it turned out to be really dull. However, this story was pretty good. Clark is in a meeting with Lois and Perry when the bearded Clark burst in and exposes his identity. He says that Superman is evil and he took Clark's place and kept the real Clark in an underground cave as a prisoner. An earthquake freed him and now he is going to expose Superman for what he really is. Superman quickly gets him out of there and finds out that he is really from another dimension and traveled to this one when the earthquake opened up a rift between the worlds. Superman takes him back and battles the evil superman to defend their Metropolis. In the end we find that everyone on this world is really a robot. Superman knew it was all fake when he noticed that everyones body temperature was 60 degrees and the city looked too shiny and new. It was all a trap by the Superman Revenge Squad and they placed a forcefield around the world so Superman couldn't escape. The force filed was starting to close and it was a race between Superman and the Squads spaceship to see who would make it. Of course Superman made it and the Superman Revenge Squad had their ship destroyed by the very forcefield they made to trap Superman. This was a really good story and in my opinion one of the best of Supermans from the 1960's.

My Two Cents: Flash Gordon

Well tonight is the second episode of the new TV series Flash Gordon. I really wanted to see this series but was busy at the time so I taped it and just watched it this morning. Maybe it is because I am older but this Flash wasn't to my liking. I watched the old serial that had Buster Crabbe as Flash. It was of course in black and white with little humor but lots of action. Years later in the 1980's Flash was back in all his campy glory with Sam Jones in the role. There was more humor this time with lots of action. While some didn't care for it I loved it. It was light and breezy fun. With it now being in color and a name like Flash there were lots of things colored in red and yellow. Mostly Flash in his red shirt and blond hair. Dale Arden was played by the lovely and beautiful Melody Anderson and the rest of the cast was Max Von Sydow as Ming, Topol as Dr. Zarkov, Ornella Muti as Princess Aura and Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin. If you get the DVD you should have alot of fun watching it.

The new Flash seems to think it is in black and white again. Oh yes it is in color but most of the scenes are lit so dull that you hardly notice the color. The above picture is a perfect example of what you will see. Not the bright and blazing colors that I expected and hoped for. The plot just plodded along and seem to take its time getting to each plot point. Casting seemed pretty good espically with the lead as Flash. They said the lines well but they just didn't make me care. These days the viewer has a lot competting for his attention and other things at home seemed more interesting to do then watch Flash Gordon. Maybe I'll just get out the old Buster Crabbe serials and watch them instead. Anyway this is just my two cents on Flash Gordon.

Happy Birthday

I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Birthday to Rob at the * Aquaman Shrine. I hope you have a great day buddy.

Monkees in color

If you look at yesterdays posting you will see a black and white photo from around 1966 with the Monkees jumping. While I wasn't on line last week I decided to try and colorize some black and white photos and this was one of them. I hope you like it. I know Davy made his living training to be a jocky but he must have been in great shape then. If you notice that while he is shorter then the others, he is jumping as high as the others. Actually he looks to be jumping a little higher then Mike.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

That may be a little dramatic but I was wondering when I would finally get them and I finally did. The Monkees CDs from Rhino have arrived! While most of the stuff on the CD's was not new to me I did find it interesting to hear a new alternate version of What Am I Doin' Hanging Round on PAC&J Ltd. They were close to the finished project but not quite there yet. Anyway when you get it you will be pleased.

Sorry I have not posted for about a week but I was not on the internet at all till today and not much to report here. Hope you had a good week.

Still Waiting

As you may recall I recently ordered the CD's of the new Monkees releases, Headquarters and PAC&J LTD. to get the new single "I Didn't Know You Had It In You Sally." Well I got the 45 but I still have yet to receive the CDs. I kept calling Rhino but kept being told it was on its way. Finally they said they would mail a replacement shipment. Great I thought I would be getting what I had paid for. Well Friday afternoon I was on the phone again to them. The young lady said that even the replacement shipment should have been here by now and it was unusual for two shipments of the same thing to go missing in the mail. (Especially since I got the specail 45 on time.) I told her I hoped they arrived Saturday. Well on Saturday I didn't get the CDs but I did get a DVD set of Buck Rogers that I ordered from Columbia House only a few days ago. I will wiat the rest of the week but if not I will be back on the phone to Rhino. I don't know if the problem is with Rhino or the post office but I hope it is resolved soon.

Hawk and Dove action figures

From Polite Dissent is the above diorama of the Hawk and the Dove. If possible they may be bigger Hawk and the Dove fans then I am. They have also, on the pages I recently viewed, discussed the second series of Hawk and Dove. It lasted longer then the first series but I still prefer the first series. I loked the way Ditko started the first series trying to teach people the difference between the law and justice. Hawk was still more militant but the new Dove was at times able to soften Hank up. I'll save more of this for another posting.
The action figures above are great. I got them when they first came out. I have always wanted Hawk and Dove action figures and I finally got them. Hey I had to get them as you may never see them again. They came with a figure of Wonder Woman as the three of them appeared together on Justice League Unlimted. I seem to have lost my Wonder Woman figure but I think it fell behind the book case and I will see it again once I can move the case.