DCnU: Quality Watch 2

Blackhawks

(1) Col. Andrew Lincoln, (2) Lady Blackhawk, (3) Attila, (4) Kunoichi, (5) the Irishman, (6) Wildman, and (7) Canada.

My profile for the new Blackhawks is up at Cosmic Teams! This series got off to a rocky start before it even hit stands. The initial creative team of Chuck Austen and Ken Lashley did not end up (fully) doing a single issue of the series. Initial reviews of the book were very mixed and I don't think anyone was wowed. Personally, I was disappointed at first that this was an entirely new Blackhawks, with no homage whatsoever to the classic team. But it has a charm all its own if you can read it on those terms. Mike Costa, ultimately wrote it; he had experience with G.I. Joe for IDW, and his Blackhawks reads somewhat in that vein. Message board chatter at DC seems to indicate that some readers have followed writer Mike Costa into this book.

Cover of Blackhawks #5

Nobody expected this series to sell like gangbusters, and the first issue ranked 77th in sales, with  36,013 copies. This was in the bottom five of the "new 52." Issue #2 came in at number 86 with an estimated 28,534 copies.

Also note that this is the first time that the book has been titled in the plural.

Solicitations for January's issue #5 have ramped up speculation, as it looks like the classic Lady Blackhawk might be making a return. This seems more in line with the "give them what they want" philosophy of the new 52.

Read more at Cosmic Teams.

Feature Funnies #1 and Police Comics #1 for sale on ebay

I stumbled across two key Quality Comics on ebay today. The first was

October 1937

Quality Comics' very first issue, Feature Funnies #1. This issue had no super-heroes. They wouldn't start trickling in until Busy Arnold launched his second title, Smash Comics, in 1939. Instead, this issue was filled almost entirely with reprints from the three syndicates with whom he had partnered. The CGC graded price of $1,250 on this book seems in line, but I'm no expert! I recently bought Feature Funnies #2 in a coverless condition. It was not $1000. (In fact I gotta get that scanned—there's no high res version at the DCM...)

The second book on ebay is Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941) the legendary first appearance of Plastic Man and Phantom Lady (also the Human Bomb and Firebrand).

The asking price here is $1549 but it lacks a hard grade. The seller has many Golden Age books for sale, so one might presume that he is savvy about the condition vs. price. He mentions that it WOULD be Fine if not for some damage. I don't buy these sorts of things often, but is it really the buyer's job to suss out the real grade on a comic being sold by an experienced collector?

DCnU: Quality Watch

Yesterday I found two all-new Quality Comics standards in the pages of my Wednesday haul. The stunning spread below featured the unexpected return of the War Wheel (times two!) in the pages of Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #4. The War Wheel has always been a bane to the Blackhawks and first appeared in Quality Comics' Blackhawk #56 (Sept. 1952).

I have a real soft spot for this book, its lead character, and for the Creature Commandos. Ironically, this book's story is linked to others written by the creators of the next series I'm going to mention, The Ray. S.H.A.D.E. played a central role in all of Palmiotti and Gray's post-Infinite Crisis series, including those that dealt with the Freedom Fighters.
   

The War Wheel returns in spades, flanked by an army of G.I. Robots, in Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #4. Art by Alberto Ponticelli. 

Quality Comics: Further Reading

Now that you've read the Quality Companion cover-to-cover several times, you might be wondering if there's anything else on this Earth to read. (Incidentally, all of this information will continue to reside, in most up-to-date form, under the Resources tab at the top, too.)

Stop One: Alter Ego

Go to the source. See the  TwoMorrows Bibliography, which lists the relevant issues of Alter Ego that feature Jim Amash's original interviews and other Quality-related articles. Most of those issues are available for digital download.

And it couldn't be easier for you to start clicking on the Online Resources.

Stop Two: Defintive Works

Park yer carcass for a weekend with these books in your hands. The following publications are definitive and recommended works.

Andelman, Bob. Will Eisner, A Spirited Life. Milwaukie, Or.: M Press, 2005. This is the authorized biography; it's pretty much the final word on all things Eisner.

Black, Bill, ed. Golden Age Greats Spotlight, vol. 2. AC Comics, 2007. Reprints loads of complete Quality Comics stories.

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2000. Though it is fictional, Chabon's own Golden Age research shines through in this Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Eisner, Will. The Dreamer: A Story from the Birth of Comic Books. Princteton, Wis.: Kitchen Sink Press, 1986. This story was written as an allegory to Eisner's early days with Iger and Quality.

Plastic Man and Blackhawk Foldees (1966)

Get ready to LOL, cuz here come those lovable DC Topps Foldees from 1966! See those for Plastic Man and Blackhawk after the jump...

I've owned the whole set for some time now and just realized that these were in there. If you want to know a little more about it, or see the whole set, visit the page on Cosmic Teams! and see the slideshow.

This card set had 44 total, and collecting them was a lot of fun but challenging. Many of them were folded endlessly and suffer from it. The gems are those cards that have never been folded. Foldees were cards with three perforated panels that could be folded over in various combinations that produced supposedly humorous results. Super-heroes were on one side, and other characters on the other. 2-1/2" x 4-11/16". From packs of Topps bubble gum. Unfolded cards are still perforated, but you can tell by testing them if they have been bent.

Mark Evanier discusses Blackhawk and Plastic Man

The writer on his turn with the Quality legend, and on the Plastic Man cartoon!

Conducted by Mike Kooiman on 17 November 2011

Visit Mark Evanier's web site, POVonline!

An homage to Mark Evanier, drawn by his writing
partner, Sergio Aragonés. The two have produced
The Spirit (for DC) and Groo.

Writer Mark Evanier is probably familiar—if not by name, then by the characters he has written—to many cartoon and comics fans, having written for various publishers, producers and networks since the early 1970s. He was a friend to Jack Kirby and was involved with Kirby’s "New Gods" comics for DC in the early 1970s. Evanier is also a frequent collaborator with Sergio Aragonés and a contributor to the Jack Kirby Collector. As a writer, his work for DC Comics is relatively sporadic, but he made a great impression on me and many other fans with his reinvention of Blackhawk in 1982, with artist Dan Spiegle. Over the course of the series, Evanier often revealed behind-the-scenes details about producing Blackhawk, but my talk with him unearthed some fascinating caveats, and other things that I didn’t expect to learn!

Mike Kooiman: Tell me what you’re up to now…

Mark Evanier: Right now the main thing in my life is that I’m writer/producer/voice director of the Garfield cartoon show, seen on Cartoon Network and hundreds of other channels around the world. I’m writing another "Groo" project with Sergio Aragonés for Dark Horse, and I’m writing another new comic that I can’t talk about yet and I’m writing a screen play… I guess all sorts of different things.

MK: How long has it been since you’ve done any work for DC?

Evanier: I’ve done a few forewords—introductions to reprint collections but I haven’t written any comics for them for about two years. I did The Spirit comic for them for a brief time …

MK: I confess I haven’t read the ones you’re written but they’re on my agenda!

Evanier: In those, the stories were all by Sergio Aragonés, I just did the dialogue. It was the same series that was begun by Darwyn Cooke.

MK: You first worked with Dan Spiegle on Scooby Doo... Mystery Comics at Gold Key?

Dick Giordano's Cover Art

The cover of this book was illustrated by the late, great Dick Giordano. It was actually commissioned by Roy Thomas a few years ago when Roy and Jim Amash had originally begun planning the book together. Due to his schedule, Roy had to back out of the project, but since the cover was already in house and everyone liked it, it remained as the cover.

Regrettably, I never drew the connection between this art and the issue from which it drew inspiration: All-Star Comics #4. Roy pointed this out to me after the Companion's publication. At some point there was also talk of redrawing Uncle Sam's hand to come in front of the building, which would have been less true to the original cover's art.

Paul Gustavson Stamps from Finland

Paul Gustavson was a prolific contributor to the Quality Comics legacy. His artwork is often dismissed or overlooked in favor of the "greats" like Fine, Cole and Crandall. But I love his work.  The artist was honored by his homeland, Åland, Finland, in 2011 with a series of stamps that feature three of his super-hero creations!

Blackhawk: The 1970s

George Evans redesigned the Blackhawk uniform for a new decade, primarily adding the color red, and the zip-front jacket (frequently worn unzipped—sexy '70s style; from Blackhawk #244 (1976). Art by George Evans.

The 1976 regeneration of Blackhawk was written by Steve Skeates for most of its run, and was edited by Gerry Conway, with assists and story editing by Jack C. Harris. George Evans was the sole artist on the first tale, then he became the finisher over Ric Estrada's art.

DC chose to keep this team's true origins (and continuity) a bit mysterious. No doubt the property posed a similar problem to any of DC's other long-running features: how do you explain the true age of these characters if they were active in the 1940s? In 1976, DC's answer was that the Blackhawk team began in the 1950s (1957 if one mirrors the start of their DC career). The 1970s Blackhawks could not have been from Earth-X (which was overtaken by Hitler), and the 1980s revival was later defined as the Earth-One team.

The Earth-One Justice League appeared in the 1960s Blackhawk, which would place them on Earth-One as well. That was probably the logic at the time, but later Mark Evanier's Blackhawk was explicitly defined as the Earth-One team. Another anomaly was Roy Thomas' use of the characters in All-Star Squadron, where they were on Earth-Two during World War II.
You didn't realize Blackhawk continuity was such a mess, did you? But if one isolates Blackhawk's DC adventures from 1957-1977, they fit easily into Silver Age Earth-One continuity. There are reasons for this in the narrative below.

In the letters column of Blackhawk #244, Jack C. Harris penned a classified memo of sorts which "speculated" about the Blackhawks' origins:

Quality Companion Delivery Update

UPDATE! Guess what I got in my hot little hands yesterday???

The book has shipped from the printer! This means it will be finding its way to distributors and retailers very soon.

For Wednesday comic book shoppers, that means you might see it in two weeks, on December 14!

Regardless, anyone who wants it should have it before Christmas.