thanekos: Seiga Kaku from Touhou 13, shadowed. (Default)
[personal profile] thanekos
Once upon a time Lex went down an all-consuming path, the Joker became a little serious to check him, someone died for a quick joke, and the stuff of power rings was involved.

Yes, it's.. the Joker's ongoing's seventh, whose cover featured its protagonist in peril (as opposed to imperiling or merely contending with the monthly antagonist.)

And which began, in two ways, in media res. )
thehefner: (Two-Face: FOREVER!!!)
[personal profile] thehefner
Just under the wire!

I wasn't sure I'd ever own a copy of this issue. As it featured the first appearance of Arkham Asylum, copies were out of my price range (unless I'm buying rare back issues for my girlfriend--because I'm clearly the most awesome boyfriend ever, zomg--my limit is five bucks), but I managed to find a ratty-ass copy that was good enough to read and scan. Huzzah!

I'm glad I did, because while the story is dated and rough, it was surprisingly ahead of its time with how sympathetically it treated Two-Face. Sure, he was sympathetic in his original appearance, but that was only up to the point that he was redeemed and had his face fixed. After it got rescarred again, his very few appearances between 1954 and 1971 treated him more like a tragic character who's now just a villain to be stopped, and all sympathy for him died long ago. It's how many still write him.

It's also how Denny O'Neil himself treated the character in his first Two-Face story, Half a Life. I should post that here, both the original version and the recent recoloring, just to compare. But today's post is O'Neil's *second* Two-Face story: Threat of the Two-Headed Coin! from Batman #258 (1974). And this time, O'Neil takes a slightly different approach with the character, one which undoubtedly influenced the writers on Batman: The Animated Series in how they handled villains.

That said, it's still very early Bronze Age, right down to the cracky intro image, where Harvey resembles Wile E. Coyote to an oblivious Dynamic Duo:





Fun with atomic weapons behind the cut )
thehefner: (Two-Face: FOREVER!!!)
[personal profile] thehefner
Back when I posted Two-Face: Year One--which entirely cut out the character of Harvey's wife, Gilda--one commenter asked if any kind of wife/finance is really needed for Harvey.

Me, I'd argue that Gilda is a character who is absolutely essential to displaying the humanity and core tragedy of Harvey Dent. Unfortunately, she's made very few appearances in comics, which I think is a major reason why Two-Face is so often written as a one-note monster with a cheap gimmick.

That said, Gilda can be a problematic character. When she first appeared in the original Harvey Kent trilogy way back in the 40's, her character was mainly there to be the weeping, faithful, fragile love interest, the pure-hearted woman who could redeem Harvey through the sheer power of lurve.

Two-Face eventually returned, but Gilda did not. At least, not until 1980, after a thirty-six year absence, in the story I bring you today. In this overly-convoluted mystery entitled Double Jeopardy/Twice Dies the Batman, Gilda meets a new love interest with a shady past, and unwittingly becomes involved in a web of lies, murder, and revenge. Why can't there ever be webs of nice things, like puppies and pie?





Plastic surgery does not work that way behind the cut )



In the near future, I'll post the one other story to actually make use of this refreshing new direction for Gilda before she's relegated back to her previous characterization... or worse, in the case of the story from which she's now, regrettably, most famous.
skjam: Man in blue suit and fedora, wearing an eyeless mask emblazoned with the scales of justice (Default)
[personal profile] skjam
Hi folks!

Hope your Thursday was good, and everyone is quite recovered.

I'm using "Weakness Week" as an excuse to run a few pages of this character...



Can you guess his secret weakness?

For those of you who haven't met the character before, the Silent Knight was actually Brian Kent, son of Sir Edwin Kent. Sir Edwin was co-ruler of a fiefdom with Sir Oswald. Oswald didn't want to share, and treacherously slew Sir Edwin. Brian realized what had happened, but could not speak out against Sir Oswald, as he was now sole ruler, and Brian was not yet of age. So Brian adopted an identity-concealing set of armor to fight for the common people against Sir Oswald's misrule. One problem--the full-face helmet wasn't going to be enough. Brian had a very distinctive voice, so he couldn't go the standard superhero route of lowering it a notch and speaking gruffly; he had to remain silent or have Sir Oswald prove that the outlaw Silent Knight was the same person as Brian Kent and legally have him put to death.

This is a fairly typical story, "The Three Flaming Dooms!" It was originally printed in The Brave and the Bold #15 in 1957, but this is the 1974 reprint in The Brave and the Bold #112. 3 1/3 pages of ten.

Apologies in advance for the crooked scans. )

Your thoughts and comments?

Suggested tags
char: Silent Knight/Brian Kent
creator: Irv Novick
creator: Robert Kanigher
publisher: DC Comics
theme: animals
title: The Brave and the Bold
thehefner: (Two-Face: FOREVER!!!)
[personal profile] thehefner
One of the most distinctive aspects of The Bronze Age of Comics (early 70's to mid 80's) was how it mixed classic superheroics in a greater sense of realism.

Or at least, that was the attempt, more often than not. Even those results that were groundbreaking at the time now read as dated, ham-handed, and/or just plain silly. I mean, I know it's blasphemous, but have any of you recently read the O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow run?

Due to the popularity of James Bond and other Cold War spy adventures, Batman's stories took on a more global scope, most notably once O'Neil brought in Ra's Al Ghul. Even the classic Rogues got into the espionage game, including Penguin, Joker, and, of course, the focus of today's story:





The surprise identity of today's mystery guest villain behind the cut! )

So obviously Two-Face survives, but we're never given any explanation to how. In fact, this was at least his second sure death during the Bronze Age, the first of which I still have yet to post, and that one wasn't explained away either!

Instead, Harvey returns a mere year later, with no mention of this story whatsoever, in another Novick-drawn tale that not only brings back Gilda, but also directly spins out of the Dave Davis origin. It's Gilda's first appearance since the Golden Age, and the first truly interesting look at the character and why she's so vital to Harvey as a character.
stig: "It Was A Boojum..." (Default)
[personal profile] stig
From Joker #8, a couple of good reasons not to get mixed up in the battle between two Super-Criminals, in this case our favourite circus maniac and his psychiatrist counterpart, the Scarecrow. As it was the big J's first solo series, he actually comes off as incredibly fun and full of ingenious plans...



...And One Or Two Kinds Of Madness, As Well )
mystery: (Default)
[personal profile] mystery



tags: creator: marv wolfman, creator: irv novick, creator: frank mclaughlin, creator: adrienne roy, creator: jim aparo, creator: ben oda, title: batman, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: nightwing/robin/dick grayson, char: talia al ghul, char: catwoman/selina kyle
mystery: (Default)
[personal profile] mystery


Oh my!


tags: creator: marv wolfman, creator: irv novick, creator: frank mclaughlin, creator: john celardo, creator: jim aparo, creator: ross andru, creator: dick giordano, creator: vince coletta, title: batman, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: nightwing/robin/dick grayson, char: talia al ghul, char: catwoman/selina kyle
mystery: (Default)
[personal profile] mystery


tags: creator: marv wolfman, creator: michael fleisher, creator: irv novick, creator: frank mclaughlin, title: batman, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: nightwing/robin/dick grayson, char: talia al ghul
mystery: (Default)
[personal profile] mystery


tags: creator: don newton, creator: steve mitchell, creator: marv wolfman, creator: irv novick, creator: frank mclaughlin, title: batman, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: nightwing/robin/dick grayson, char: catwoman/selina kyle, char: talia al ghul
mystery: (Default)
[personal profile] mystery


char: batman/bruce wayne, char: nightwing/robin/dick grayson, char: catwoman/selina kyle, title: detective, creator: Steven Englehart, creator: Terry Austin, creator: Marshall Rogers, creator: David V. Reed, creator: Irv Novick, creator: Frank McLaughlin, title: Batman, char: wonder girl/troia/donna troy, char: harlequin/duela dent
icon_uk: (Robin Joker Another day....)
[personal profile] icon_uk
A friend attempts, every year, to get me a couple of Robin based commissions as a Christmas present, and my 2009 presents just arrived, so I thought I'd share

First up is a delightful Hembeck re-do of this classic, cracktastic Irv Novick cover from 1968- Batman 209



"Don't you know who I am? What are you dense or something? I'm the Goddam Tony the Tiger!"

You'll need to click to see both the pics! :P )

tags suggestions

medium: commission
in-joke: bondage
char: batman/bruce wayne
char: robin/nightwing/dick grayson
char: robin/red hood/jason todd
char: ventriloquist/arnold wesker
comic: batman
creator: fred hembeck
creator: briz
creator: irv novick
buttler: (moremurder)
[personal profile] buttler
You know, it's great that DC is bringing back all these other old Archie heroes, but there's just one name that really makes crime quake in fear: BOB PHANTOM!

Say his name! )
[identity profile] icon_uk.insanejournal.com
Well, after Crazy Quilt had made such an impression on the Boy Commandos, it would be three years before he would appear again, and prove to be a threat to the one boy who can NEVER go commando...

From 1952's Star Spangled Comics 123 (Which was the first title to feature Robin's solo adventures)

[identity profile] icon_uk.insanejournal.com
This is from Batman 246 - Story by Frank Robbins, Art by Dick Dillin, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano

It's one of those covers that I'm sure just LEAPT off of the gets endlessly repeated by those with delightfully prurient minds.. in other words the entire membership of scans_daily!



But what goes on inside this testament to the perils of dabbling with autoerotic asphyxiation horror and fear? This masterclass in "Sidekick in peril"-dom? Now the story can be told... well, selected chunks of it. (I think this totals out at around 7 pages from a 23 page story.)

[identity profile] icon_uk.insanejournal.com
It's been noted, and not by me, that since we moved here, we've been lacking a certain something, a certain "je ne sais quoi", But I've realised je sais exactly what quoi we're missing...

TIED UP ROBIN!

And so, to rectify that, I've gone digging through my archives to come up with a selection of published pages and commission work which fits the bill. More by coincidence than anything they all feature Dick Grayson... what a surprise! :)

So, to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim in his original version of "Back in Business" from Dick Tracy (Not to be confused with Madonna's version, the Sondheim one is far more of a period piece... but I digress)

Back in bondage and feeling grand, let the good time roll! )

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