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Monday, December 31, 2012

Adventure Comics # 398, October, 1970


Oddly enough, this cover touting the "New" Supergirl features the "Old" Supergirl, spotlighting as it does this issue's lead story which, for some reason, is a reprint by Jim Mooney from seven years earlier. 

  

 I had the glow-in-the-dark werewolf kit. Little did I know that the stuntman who played the werewolf on DARK SHADOWS would later be the original, uncredited director on LET'S GO FOR BROKE, the sole feature film starring murdered actress Christa Helm. (See http://christahelm.blogspot.com )




Okay, at least the "New" Supergirl shows up mid-book. Cover artist Dick Giordano's inks loo quite good over Sekowsky and his increasingly odd layouts.



How does one forget to draw the "S" shield?


Always loved this panel!



Sunday, December 30, 2012

Adventure Comics # 397, September, 1970


This issue must have been a major culture shock at the time. Not to me. I had given up the title a few issues earlier and wouldn't pick it up again until issue 400. 

Mike Sekowsky had been a comics artist for two decades by this point but the powers that be had recently put him in charge of WONDER WOMAN and THE METAL MEN as Editor/Writer/Artist. The results were...different. Different enough I guess to throw Supergirl into that mix. New supporting characters and a new costume--the first of several soon to come.























My friend Terry had this poster. "Life-Size?" It was a poster about 4 feet high. Kinda small for a life-size monster.






Saturday, December 29, 2012

Adventure Comics # 396, August, 1970


This was the final issue of Supergirl's adventures as we have known them. As noted in the letters column, in answer to the great pioneering comics historian Rich Morrissey (who died in 2001), WONDER WOMAN editor Mike Sekowsky was taking over the following month. 





Friday, December 28, 2012

Adventure Comics # 395, July, 1970


A great cover for a pretty good issue. The first story is again a bit odd (and we learn that Win Mortimer really isn't good at celebrity likenesses). Sophia Loren--Uranus? No comment. 




A fun, traditional Superman family tale, continued the next issue.


This is the ad. This is what ultimately changes everything for DC. In decades to come, The Superman mythos would essentially be rewritten to tie deeply into the concepts created by The Great One, who remains nameless here but I seem to recall I was pretty sure who it was...and I was right!



Thursday, December 27, 2012

Adventure Comics # 394, June, 1970


I'm curious as to why they chose the second SUPERGIRL story from this issue to illustrate on the cover as the first one, by Cary Bates with Win Mortimer and Jack Abel, is quite fun and more than a little different for this series. It's a tribute to a classic story by...Well, here. YOU read it.















The late Joe Kubert, founder of the art school that bears his name, had been educating others in cartooning almost as long as he himself had been a cartoonist. Here, in what is basically a filler page, is a very educational and informative intro to the basics of cartooning.