What the Sam Scratch is goin' on here?!? #15

Black Cat Mystery #32, December 1951

For more on this weird and wacky series, click here.

Beef. Cake.

According to Miss Kalinara, this is Beef and Cake week. Well, let's see...I am beef...and I like cake!



Mmmm...cake.

Don't switch the blade on the guy in shades

So, I was posting last night about Daredevil #57, in which Hornhead reveals his secret identity as Matt Murdock to Karen Page, and I noticed somethin' interestin'. As you'll remember, I've read the story in Essential Daredevil Vol. 3, the black-and-white phone book-style omnibus of the late sixties run of Daredevil. When it came time to post the cover of DD #57, however, I grabbed it from the ever-amazing Grand Comic Book Database (don't blog without it!) so that I could post a color cover. Whoda thunk, true believer, that the b/w cover pictured in Essential Daredevil was different than the one in living color on the GCD. Can you spot the difference? And no, smart aleck, it's not that one's in black and white and the other's in color:




Give up?

Daredevil is wearing sunglasses in the black-and-white version.

I noticed this originally after staring at the b/w version in Essential for a while and then starting to post "Who wears sunglasses under a mask" before realizing that in the color version I'd posted, DD wasn't wearing his trademark Matt Murdock Foster Grants! So where'd they come from in the b/w version? A puzzlement, a puzzlement indeed!

Here's my guess, and it is exactly that, a guess: I don't know how the Marvel Essentials volumes are produced, but most (not all) of the stories seems to be shot from pure black-and-white masters, with no coloring shading turned to grey. (A few stories in some of the volumes do indeed look like they're shot from the actual color comic books.) That produces the stark, detailed black-and-white artwork you can admire, and if you're so inclined, color, in the Essentials. If indeed the Essentials are shot from some sort of b/w production stats (probably not the original art, likely long sold or destroyed), then it's entirely possible we're looking at some editorial workover of Genial Gene Colan's original artwork. It's all an "I guess," of course, but looks like maybe Colan pencilled and Syd Shores inked DD with the usual Murdock specs on—after all, Matt doesn't look like Matt without 'em, does he? Then maybe Stan or someone at the editorial level pointed out DD wouldn't, couldn't wear those shades under his crimson cowl, and the artwork was redrawn before printing to produce what became the final covered version: a barefaced Matt Murdock who is very definitely not making a spectacle of himself.

It's all just supposition on this little stuffed bull's part. I doubt Gene would remember and we can almost bet Stan wouldn't even if he had a hand in it. Maybe it's time to set the bloodhound at "Comic Book Urban Legends on the trail of the altered art. Or maybe it's just one of those cool little mysteries neither man nor bull was meant to know...an enigma of the last days of the Silver Age, a tale more amazing in its obscurity than in its truth...a misty, hidden secret lost to the passing of time. The world may never know.

This is Bully Nimoy, and this has been...In Search of...Daredevil's Sunglasses.

(cue cool Moogy In Search of end theme music):

Daredevil #56: "...And Death Came Riding!"

I got so caught up in gigglin' at pokin' gentle but fond fun at various panels in Daredevil #56 that I plum fergot to actually say anything about the story itself. So, in words of one silly-bull, this book is fun. It's a fairly standard story for the time: DD is as usual dealing with his complicated series of secret identities: he's just coming off the long-running "my non-existent twin brother Mike Murdock is actually Daredevil, whoops Mike is dead" storyline and it's in the middle of the the whole "Matt Murdock is believed dead to trap the villainous Starr Saxon but maybe it's better that way if Karen Page believes Matt to truly be an ex-Matt" plot, but really, how can you go wrong with a story whose splash page features Daredevil singing a Lennon/McCartney song aloud as he swings through the streets of Manhattan? The late sixties was probably the heights of the soap opera aspect of Daredevil; the "wahhhh, Karen doesn't love me" bit went on a bit long. But the writing's done with such a light touch and the action barrels ahead full-speed. It's a standard but well-constructed DD story, and heck, it sure provides its fifteen cents of entertainment.

I read this story in (the highly recommended) Essential Daredevil Volume 3; to these little button eyes, Gene Colan's moody, shadowy, angled artwork might even look better in black-and-white than in color. I'm a big fan of Colan during this period (even though he did have a tendency to draw fight scenes so you couldn't see the characters' heads...what's that about?). Although Colan's sometimes an unusual art choice for the ordinary Daredevil billy-club in New York adventure, then boy howdy, did Rascally Roy cook up an appropriate tale for him with #56: Karen Page, the love of Hornhead's life, returns home to Stately Page Manor to find the place under the thrall of a sinister new butler and haunted by Death's-Head, a glowing spectre riding a skeleton horse straight of of Karen's childhood dreams. And where's Papa Page during all this? The clues are no harder to put together than an episode of Scooby-Doo, but there's some solid action and tension when DD faces off against the ghostly rider. Sure enough, there's the dangling promise of a dandy Stan Lee-style cliffhanger at the end: Death's-Head knocks out DD, dresses DD in the Death's-Head costume, and sends him off against a pair of trigger-happy cops! Will Daredevil escape? Will Daredevil escape?!? (turning the page to issue #57...) Oh, guess he did.

Most of the fun for this little stuffed Daredevil fan, however, is in the weird and wacky machination behind the Matt/Karen relationship, which has been up and down more often than Stilt-Man. Matt loves Karen but must never reveal his secret identity? That's standard Marvel superhero fare, but what this story was building up to and paid off in issue #57 was fairly groundbreaking for the time:



Anyway, that cover? Not a hoax, not a dream, not a what if, not an imaginary story! In #57, Karen did actually find out the secret of Hornhead's true identity, and that revelation remained canon and unretconned. You kids today with your Civil Wars and your Houses of Ms and your Volkswagen Golf leases may not think that's anything special, what with everybody and his butler now knowing the true identity of Spider-Man and Iron Man and Captain America Man and Professor X-Man, but the Marvel of the sixties and seventies was the tightest lock-down imaginable for secret identities: with the possible exception of the Hulk/Bruce Banner in Tales to Astonish #77, each of the Silver Age heroes protected his secret identity if he had one. Sure, Spider-Man might be flown through the streets sans mask, Captain America's relation to Steve Rogers might be uncovered by HYDRA, Willie Lumpkin might peek under Forbush-Man's pot helmet, but by the end of the storyline if not that same issue the revelation would be undone, retconned, explained away, amnesiaed out, or misled with clones, doubles, LMDs or the occasional jus' plain dumb luck. That the late-sixties Daredevil's identity was made known to one of his closest supporting cast members is one of the most dramatic steps forward towards turning the book from just another Spider-Man clone (and I think we all know how painful that can be) towards its own distinct urban noir that, a handful of silly villains aside, really saw its roots in this era. It's part of the reason I love Silver Age and seventies Marvels: every once in a while one of Stan's successors would throw us a curveball, and whether that twist worked or failed, there were some periods when you never really knew what was coming up in a Marvel comic book from month to month. And you just had to read the next issue to find out...canny, canny Marvel Bullpen! You've got me and my dimes exactly where you want us!

Before I sign off to dream about billy clubs and stilt-men, in the spirit of the Mighty Marvel bonus features, here's the flame-broiled cover of Daredevil Volume 2 #56 (March 2004):



Wow, that glowing red cover with its skeletal hands could almost be a modern version to fit the story in Volume 1, #56. Did Death's-Head come back in this issue in an all-new Bendis version? If so, I'd imagine it would take him three pages just to get out his wicked cackling rant.

Heck, while we're at it, why not savour the Golden Agey goodness of the original Lev Gleason Daredevil #56 (September 1949):



Golly, why doesn't anyone use the word "Illustories" any more?

Why there was no post last night.

Rassin' frassin' cotton-pickin'...Blogger, you can't live with it, you can't live without it.

Unless it does the same thing again later, then tonight: Daredevil 56s.

Math

+

+

=

Ten of a Kind: Two-Faced

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Adventures in Bullhattan: Alphabet Soup

"Attention passengers. This is a Brooklyn-bound F train making all local stops to Euclid Avenue, not Coney Island. Due to weekend construction, there is no C train service in Brooklyn. All stations on the C line will be serviced by this Brooklyn-bound F train making all local stops to Euclid Avenue. For all local stops on the F line to Stillwell Ave., disembark at Hoyt-Schemerhorn, cross the platform and board a Brookyn-bound G train, now making all local stops on the F line to Stillwell Ave. No, we don't understand it either."

(Actual announcement on the Brooklyn-bound F train this evening)

Where's "Ten of a Kind", you ask? It'll be posted Monday evening, Bully-backers.

What the Sam Scratch is goin' on here?!? #14

Daredevil #318, July 1993

The disgusting habits of Miss Karen Page.

"Hmmm, I wonder if that piece of Doublemint I hid under this bench when I was twelve is still h...hey, what do you know!"


Most magnificent Roy Thomas caption yet. But what have we learned from this? That apparently Karen was a Virginia Slims kinda gal.


"Of course not, darling...why, it's not as if you became a heroin addict, starred in adult movies, and sold out the secret identity of a heroic adventurer for a drug hit."

Panels are from...can you guess?...Daredevil #56, September 1969

Let's Ask Hornhead!

Hey DD! What's your favorite Nelly Furtado album?

(Joke gleefully borrowed stolen from BeaucoupKevin)

Alternate joke: "Hey DD! What's your favorite Jaime Hernandez graphic novel?"

Panel, as is everything this week, from Daredevil #56, September 1969

Zippedy-Dare-da, zippedy-ay

A clear sign you're in the pre-Frank Miller Daredevil universe:


Segment of the splash page to Daredevil #56, September 1969, an issue that's jus' delightin' the heck outta me this week.

Covers that say: "I gotta read that!"

We momentarily interrupt what is shaping up to be Daredevil #56 week for a brief comment about contemporary comics covers.

Comic Book Resources has posted the January DC solicitations, and there's a dandy buncha books comin' up to kick off 2007. Yessiree, it's a great time to be a comic book fan. I know where I will be spending some of my Christmas money! The CBR article has posted cover art to accompany virtually every title, so if you like to look and see what you'll be finding on the shelves in the future, well, take a big steaming gander at the covers! Over at Comics Should Be Good, Boistrous Brian Cronin does his usual excellent full wrap-up of the covers and what he thinks works and doesn't, but I'm gonna focus on just two covers that caught my eye:


Krypto the Superdog #5, and


Looney Tunes #146.

Why do these two covers catch my little button eye? Because they're among the very few DC January covers that reflect what's going on inside the book, and they are the only ones that compel yours truly to wonder "Hey, what the Sam Scratch is happening here?...that looks interesting!...what's the story behind this cover?...I gotta read this book!"

Are those dog versions of General Zod, Ursa and Non? Why, that's just...that's just brilliant! Is that entire western town made of gold? How'd that happen? And if there's gold, gold, all around, then why oh why are Daffy and Sam scrambling for a single solitary small gold nugget? Intriguing!

Oh, sure, there are a handful of other DC January books that hint at startling scenes inside in an effort to get you to pick up the comic, but none that caught my interest so fully. Come January, I'll be plunking down my dimes on the counter for 52, Detective, Action Comics Annual, JSA, The Spirit and gosh-knows how many other nifty DC books. But I'll also be buying Looney Tunes and Krypto because even four months in advance, those covers have got me intrigued and compelled to buy the book. My point—and I do have one—is that in many ways with their pin-up or generic covers (really, why must JSA go back to boring painted Alex Ross covers with its second issue?!?), comics have lost that "I gotta read that!" feel. In the Silver Age Julie Schwartz or Mort Weisinger would commission so weird and wacky a cover that you had to find out why Jimmy Olsen was Luthor's butler or Superman was made of limburger cheese, and then write the story around it. I'm not suggesting the industry go back to an age of covers come first, stories after, but if you want to intrigue and hook a new comics reader, you're less likely to do it with a pin-up cover than one that hints at a fun concept and interesting story.

At least it's nice that the artists designing covers for the Johnny DC younger reader's line over at DC seem to get that. The art of drawing the reader in with a compelling comics cover seemingly isn't lost—but somedays, in this age of pin-ups and series uniformity and superstar guest artists, a Compelling Comics Cover™ seems too good an idea to be ghettoized mostly to comics intended for primarily young readers.

I'm a cowboy; on a clear horse I ride.

Y'know, I really don't understand some super-villains.

Not all. Just some. Doctor Doom makes perfect sense to me. He's driven by three motivations: To rule the Earth. To rescue his dead mother from the bowels of hell. To destroy the accursed Richards. You've gotta respect a guy whose supervillainy can be so succinctly boiled down into a three-point "to do" list.

Lex Luthor makes sense to me too. Depending on which era you're readin', he's either got a mad-on for Superman because of his lost hair or his lost superiority over Metropolis. Lex likes being Number One, whether it's as a ruthless businessman, President of the United States, or evil science genius. And he uses his brilliance and keen science know-how to make himself bajillions of big Luthor bucks that he no doubt rolls around in naked every afternoon in between board meetings. You have to respect a man whose policy it is to use his super-intellect to make himself filthy stinkin' rich. (Not so much his Superman-killing policy.)

Which brings me to the definitely-lower level of science villain who's smart and savvy enough to create technology powerful enough to at least temporarily go up against Spider-Man or Superman or Batman or the Flash, but doesn't cash in on it: what's his story, I always wonder? Why has the megalomania gotten in the way of him seeing that he just developed a dandy radioactive-powered ice gun for which world conglomerates would pay millions to lease or buy the technology, and instead decide to use it to rob the Second National Bank of Keystone City? You know, I'm a tiny little stuffed bull who sometimes has trouble reaching the Lucky Charms on the top shelf: I'd gladly pay for a handy home version of extending stilt legs to get at the cookie jar. Let's not even think about the military applications of an army of Stilt-Men. (Actually, let's do: soldiers striding fearlessly across harsh terrain on giant metal extending stilts: cool!) So why use that creative genius to become a second-rate supervillain instead of a world-class rich guy, awash in caviar, Ferarris, and all the leggy supermodels you can wrap your arms around?

Let's take Daredevil villain Death's-Head, for example. This creepy creepster creeps rides around on a glowing, skeletal horse:


All panels in this post are from Daredevil #56, September 1969

Now you may be asking, "Bully! What possible real-world consumer application could a transparent horse have? Sure, it might be humorous to see them race at Aqueduct, but aside from the entertainment value...?" And that's where you're wrong, true believer! As DD later explains:



"Treated so its flesh was transparent and only the bones could be seen." Now, let's leave aside how blind, radar-dependent DD can tell how something is transparent (really, Matt, to you there should be no difference between a white porcelain horse and a clear glass one) and instead focus on the genius of the idea: Death's-Head has created a process through which flesh, muscle, and organs can be rended invisible so the skeletal structure inside can be seen. Improbable, maybe, but hey, we're talking about the Marvel Universe so I'll give that a pass. (The only thing higher than the levels of radioactivity and magic in the Marvel Universe are the suspensions of disbelief.) What's utterly improbable is that Death's-Head is using the genius serum to perform a cut-rate Scooby Doo routine to scare Karen and Ma Page off the old homestead instead of cashing in on the millions to be made using the process as a medical breakthrough. He woulda gotta away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling Page kids and their pesky Devil!

Just think about it: Need to see if a bone is broken or cracked or mishapen? No need for an x-ray; just brush on Miracle Fluid X and take a big steamin' gawk straight at it. You could probably use it for pre-natal examination of a baby, or checking for head trauma, or determining right at the emergency scene if a limb is broken. Modern medicine would pay millions for such a procedure! Again, there's got to be some military application as well: it's near-invisibility, and with some black-ops tweaking could possibly put Sue Storm out of business and make it a heckuva lot easier for Marvel artists to draw the adventures of Nick Fury. Why, what could possibly go wrong with such a medical breakthrough? There are no drawbacks, no shortcomings, no possible or conceivable arguments against using such a process on humans...



Oh.

Never mind.

Okay, super-villainy it is, then!

Matt Murdock, Smooth Operator

(From Daredevil #56, September 1969)

DAREDEVIL: Karen, your father...according to this picture, he had such smooth pores! And a silky, glossy complexion. And such a blank expression and glassy stare!
KAREN: Daredevil, why are you rubbing the glass on my father's framed photo?

Bonus Two of a Kind: Just walk away, C.K.

Always an X-Men fan, Kal-El decides to get in on the "she's leaving home, bye bye" act:

Ten of a Kind: How can I miss you when you won't go away?

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

What the Sam Scratch is goin' on here?!? #13

(Detective Comics #426, August 1972)