Comic Book Resources

I look forward to reading this every Friday. Keep up the good work, Brian!

some of those kamandi images won’t show up, brian. But great post nonetheless.

nevermind my last post. they’re showing up fine, now.

some of those kamandi images won’t show up, brian. But great post nonetheless.

It’s funny, once a piece is up I forget that it actually takes a pretty decent amount of time to read. So when I make a correction right after it goes up (like the Kamandi images), I’m surprised when someone still doesn’t see them 15-20 minutes after I made the correction. Then I remember, “Oh, duh, they clicked on it BEFORE you made the correction, dummy!”

Nice to see Wing managed to find a dentist in the intervening years.

One thing you don’t mention Brian is that the Seven Soldiers were originally called Law’s Legionnaires, which is why they keep on calling them “Legionnaires” throughout their first appearance.

This wasn’t an isolated bit of inventory cleaning either– DC in the late ’60s and early ’70s were publishing a lot of hitherto unpublished material, often solo adventures of characters (like Dr. Mid-Nite or the Golden Age Atom) that could be easily used as back-up material, taken from unpublished scripts or sometimes from artwork that hadn’t been inked yet. The Seven Soldiers story was the largest one, obviously.

One thing you don’t mention Brian is that the Seven Soldiers were originally called Law’s Legionnaires, which is why they keep on calling them “Legionnaires” throughout their first appearance.

Yeah, isn’t that weird?

Because they DO call them Legionnaires throughout the issue, but then they clearly call them Seven Soldiers of Victory at the end. So they changed their mind mid-issue? Or was Law’s Legionnaires just, like, an alternate name for the group? Because they were still calling them Legionnaires (as you note) well into their run in the title.

Wow, that Captain America movie poster looks downright awfulsome… but is that Christopher Lee’s name I see? What role did he play? The idea of Lee in his younger days playing the Red Skull sounds cool, though the poster makes me fear he played some generic baddie sheriff who wanted to ban stunt motorcycles and oppress the cool kids who just want to pop wheelies, roller skate to the disco, and listen to CW McCall.

That poster was actually for the sequel (both came out in 1979). Christopher Lee plays a terrorist who is threatening to drop a “rapid aging gas” on major metropolitan areas.

I don’t understand the SSoV question / legend. I think it’s the wording.

Just for you, Squashua, I changed the wording!

I’m not one to think smoking is cool, but that Kangaroo with the cigarette and the turtleneck looks like a badass.

Ooo, I’d never seen/heard of the unsold Kamandi comic strip before.

Man, that proto-Kamandi strip is awesome. “You didn’t get here with a pogo stick!”

>I’m not one to think smoking is cool, but that Kangaroo with the cigarette and the turtleneck looks like a badass.

Is it time to start rumors linking Kirby to Joe Camel?

They went back and forth on what the official name of that group was. They are the SSoV on Leading #2, Law’s Legionnaires on #4, SSoV on #8, and similarly flip back and forth inside. Part of the problem is that there were anywhere from 5 to 8 of them.

“Crimson Avenger’s sidekick didn’t count for some reason”

Wing didn’t count because he was Asian. Yes, really.

I’ve got the 290s issues of DeMattis Captain America and it’s fine stuff. Well worth a reprint!

That’s what I was thinking when I read that line Aaron.
Then I saw the pic below it and it pretty much convinced me of that point.

Awesome proto kamandi pages, glad to see the rats, they’ve always been my favorite.
I love the big splah page for issue #2 “Year of the Rat” great stuff.

That Seven Soldiers story looks brilliant. Dead End Animals… that’s pretty much the best thing I have ever heard of. I may need to track these issues down.

Looks like those dastardly Dead End Animals traveled forward in time and stolen ‘Mazing Man’s font.

It’s rather ironic that J.M. DeMatteiis’ 3-part story broke the run of fill-ins since the Stern/Byrne run, since the whole reason they left the book in the first place was because they didn’t want to cut down a planned 3-parter with the Red Skull (Jim Shooter only wanted Marvel to do single issue storylines at this time. Unfortunately, he came up with this rule after Stern & Byrne’s 3-parter was already plotted).

I’d have killed for a Kirby POTA comic and/or cartoon. Sigh.

What in the name of all that’s holy is Lombego’s chauffeur wearing???

For the record, Leading Comics wasn’t cancelled after #14, it became a funny animal title and ran through #41.

For the record, Leading Comics wasn’t cancelled after #14, it became a funny animal title and ran through #41.

You’re absolutely correct – that was a total brain lapse. I obviously knew that (I had the cover gallery up on comics.org, after all) and yet I still missed it. Thanks, I’ll correct it asap!

The SSoV were “sometimes” called Law’s Leggionaires, according to Steranko’s History of Comics. I always assumed that meant that LL was a sort of unofficial alias, much as the Avengers are sometimes called “The Assemblers” or the X-Men (oddly) go by “Children of the Atom”. You know, like “Caped Crusader”, “Man of Steel”, “Golden Avenger”, “Emerald Goliath”, or even “Man Without Fear”.

Those three issues of Cap were my first ever and Cap #261 was my first domestic (I was given some Spanish reprints as a kid the year before) Marvel comic. I loved that Red Skull three-parter and was hooked on Marvel and Cap for decades.

Never knew they were connected to the Reb Brown movie, though. All these years I thought it had simply been J.M.’s initial story for his classic run with Mike. Thanks for letting us in on the true scoop!

I thought I recognized The Last Enemy…I have a digest from Harvey called Shocking Tales Digest that reprinted that and a number of other Kirby tales, as well as several by Bob Powell (including the funky Colorama) and (I believe) Howard Nostrand. It was published in 1981 and a cheap way to get some classic work by these gentlemen (well, cheaper than Alarming Tales, I’m sure ^_^).

Since I have those old Adventure Comics, it’s very weird to see them referenced as a legend (it makes me feel almost as old as seeing Black Lightning have a Year One miniseries).

Christopher Lee is the only good thing in either Captain America film. The premise is that Steve Rogers’ dad created a super-steroid, acronym FLAG, which he used for good, thereby getting named “Captain America” by people who mocked his idealism. Steve is the only one FLAG could work on because he has enough of Dad’s genes, but having just left the army, he wants to kick back and be a free spirit; then some of the bad guys crash his motorbike and he winds up taking FLAG to rebuild his injured body, then agrees to follows his father’s dream as (drum roll please)—Captain America!

Kamandi under Kirby was a great book. Kirby somehow gave me the impression all those animal civlizations actually existed before Kamandi showed up, and after he left would go back to their everyday existence. After he left, that quality was lost.
And the Watergate-tape worshipping gorilla cult in one issue is hysterical (“Send forth the plumber’s squad! We must capture witnesses to be—interrogated!”).

The SSoV were “sometimes” called Law’s Leggionaires, according to Steranko’s History of Comics. I always assumed that meant that LL was a sort of unofficial alias, much as the Avengers are sometimes called “The Assemblers” or the X-Men (oddly) go by “Children of the Atom”. You know, like “Caped Crusader”, “Man of Steel”, “Golden Avenger”, “Emerald Goliath”, or even “Man Without Fear”.

That is sort of the impression I got, yeah.

Yeah those 70′s Cap films were serious corny, but good campy fun if you keep them in context. After all, we were still just out of the 60′s Batman era and doing comics films as serious cinema had not yet arrived, it’s beginning being Lynda’s Carter’s Wonder Woman which STILL didn’t manage to divest itself of all the camp.

Those Captain America movies, all of them, are seven shades of terrible. It’s not just because of the camp, but they are downright BORING. Nothing happens in the first film, it takes forever for Steve to even don the costume, and the second one is so cheesy it’s not even funny. I mean really, a rapid aging gas!?!? How would that even work?

OK now, Kamandi’s origins ARE a true comics legend worth covering! I’d never heard of the Kamandi strip before, so thanks Brian! Btw there WAS a short lived Planet of the Apes cartoon- it was, if I remember right, awful. A POTA series by Kirby would’ve been MUCH better… say, I’m sure you’ve covered this before, but THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN was basically a Kamandi as an animated series with a few extra gimmicks thrown in (the sun sword, magic etc.) And it ruled.

Geez, poor Wing. Not only he never got full credit as a full member of the 7 Soldiers (but the KID sidekicks did!) not only he was killed off when the Soldiers where brought back in the 70s, but they drew him just like a Nazi Jap cartoon character! Even though he was ONE OF THE HEROES! Thank goodness the reused script had a much better portrayal! (Btw, I THINK I have this comic- or at least the first part, I remember seeing the first parts of “The Land Of Magic” somewhere, but not the later ones.)

That Captain America movie was awful. The costume was terrible, it wasn’t inspiring at all, they changed the whole story and (worst of all) the shield looked really, REALLY fake! Even for the standards of 70s superhero shows, it was a letdown! Let’s hope the next movie finally nails the character (especially the patriotic-but-not-jingoistic part.)

Wing didn’t count because he was Asian. Yes, really.

What’s sad is that I could tell that by looking at the teeth in the picture. I know enough about that period in comics to know the stereotypes used on Asians, like Chop-Chop in Blackhawk…

Hey Brian- Leading was a DC / National comic, their answer to All-American’s All-Star Comics. Look at the features, from Action (Vigilante), Detective (Crimson Avenger), More Fun (Green Arrow), Star Spangled (Kid) and Adventure (Shining Knight). DC comics all.

Not meaning to pick nits, but I hate for your wonderful column to contain errors.

Damn I am old….. I bought those issues of Adventure NEW off the newsstand.

Hey Brian- Leading was a DC / National comic,

Right you are, Greg! Thanks.

LOL @ the El Topo reference in Cap 261 — that they wanted their Cap film to be like El Topo is messed up beyond belief.

All of this is made even more bizzare by the fact that Jodoworski (El Topo’s director) crossed over to comics in 1981 with The Incal and both Jodoworski and Moebius later sued Luc Besson claiming he stole elements of The Incal in The Fifth Element.

Film to comics to film to comics to lawsuits over films and comics!

The crossover of someone from Hollywood/TV into comics is pretty commonplace these days with the likes of JJ Abrams, JMS, Kevin Smith, and Joss Whedon, Back in the late 70′s/early 80′s this was pretty much unheard of — you usually went FROM comics to TV and film, not the other way around.

So Leading Comics stopped doing super-heroes after #14, but they did feature a FUTURE super-hero later on– Peter Porkchops!

I have that Captain America with the Ameridroid, but I didn’t like it much and I haven’t read it in at least fifteen years. I don’t even remember the story at all, and none of the stuff you show rings any bells for me. (I assume the stuff you show here is from part 1 or 2, but I don’t remember anything from the story that ties in with it. I guess I need to read it again.

I got sick the night the Captain America movie was on, so I didn’t watch it. But my brothers said the motorcycle stuff was cool.

I’ve never heard of Wing, but the moment I saw those teeth I too knew he was Asian. That’s really sad, don’t you think. (I assume he was probably Chinese and not Japanese since this was during the war.)

I think Len Wein attempted to do a subtle commentary on the poor/racist treatment of Wing in JLA 100-102, where he brings back the Seven Soldiers of Victory. In that story Wing is revealed to be the forgotten eighth member of the SSoV, who nevertheless died saving them all. Maybe that was meta reference to the way Wing was ignored in the original comics? And Morrison’s Seven Soldiers also has a hidden 8th Soldier that ends up saving the day.

This Willie Wisher dude looks awful familiar… Has he shown up since?

And the only offensive visual stereotype missing from Wing in that 40s page is the orange-yellow skin. … Too bad the silver age colourist picked up the slack on that one…

Wow, I have that Beneath the Planet of the Apes by Gold Key.
It’s actually the oldest comic I have that I actually bought at the time, as opposed to back issues that I purchased after (or long after) their release. And it has not aged well, nuff said.

Kamino: Willie Wisher has a remarkable resemblance to Tyndall of Klarn, a Doug Moench creation for the Weirdworld stories. See http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/wwtyndall.htm

Oh, it seems that the way Morrison wrote his 7S series was actually based on the way the book was written back then… cool.

I can’t imagine Cap thinking “Bro-ther” in an uncomfortable situation these days. He and Daredevil and Spider-Man used to have similar personalities, but now they’re all distinct.

..You know, it’s interesting how every story about Kirby’s run at DC during the “Fourth World” era winds up exposing Carmine Infantino as a complete and utter dickwad who had no business being put in charge of DC. He screwed Jack over at every opportunity he had, and then tries to take the claim for Jack’s creations.

Just discovered Comic Book Resources. Love this column! Keep ‘em coming!

Also not counted in the Seven Soldiers is Stuff the Chinatown Kid, Vigilante’s sidekick, who was left off the team altogether, though Justice League of America (1st series) #100-102 has him thrown back in time with the Seven Soldiers in 1949. Does anyone know if he ever appeared with the Seven Soldiers in the 1940s? His first appearance wasn’t until after the Seven Soliders were formed, so it makes sense he isn’t with them at first, but what about later?

BTW, that cover to Leading Comics #14 is gorgeous.

The transparent shield that doubled as the windscreen on his bike, Alan Arbus as his weaponsmaster, I remember it all. For a while there, you couldn’t turn around without seeig a Marvel hero on TV.

Happy to see mention of that three-part cap story, it was my first multi-issue Cap story (I had read one Byrne/Stern issue with Dragon Man before that), and it made me a fan of DeMatteis, Zeck and the Red Skull for years to come.

Reb Brown may haveb een a bit unpolished as an actor when he played Cap, but, boy, he sure looked the part. Blond and beefy weren’t the most common leading men in the late Seventyies. And who’s to complain when we got Heather Menzies in a bikini? The music in the first movie was a big plus, as I recall.

Wing was indeed Chinese, which is odd, since I was under the impression only Japanese characters were depicted as having fangs. Was the back story of his being the “conscience” of the Crimson a later retcon, or was it original to the character? If original, the writers do at least deserve credit for making his character integral to the stories rather than peripheral.

It was a retcon. The Crimson Avenger didn’t have any origin or backstory until Roy Thomas wrote it for Secret Origins in the eighties.

Wow – the Kamandi story was fascinating.
One of my favourite comics of all time, and to think Kirby had already done something silmilar all those years ago. I look forward to this article every week!

Brian,

I have question that I would like for you to try to answer for me.

I am a huge Silver Surfer fan, and heard at some point that there was a very limited signed and numbered edition of the Lee and Kirby Silver Surfer Fireside book from 1978. I seem to recall that there were only 500 copies. However, I have lost the reference to it, and have not been able to find any reference to it since then. Can you tell me if such a book actually exists? I’d really appreciate it if you did.

Take a look at the lower right of the Captain America poster. It credits the character to “Alan Lee and Jack Kirby”! Kind of a double-barreled mistake– I suppose they meant “Stan Lee,” who, of course, wasn’t the co-creator of Cap, either!

Also, I love the cover to Leading Comics #15… they act like humans, but they’re ANIMALS! It’s a laugh riot! Surely no one has done this before!

This message brought to you by the exclamation point!

The reporter from Cap’s press conference who asked about the Wasp’s clothes budget cracks me up!! Was he the same one who investigated Governor Palin’s wardrobe allowance in the ’08 campaign?

[...] to a Comics Urban Legends Revealed article, Kirby created “Kamandi” when then-publisher of DC Carmine Infantino asked him [...]