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#17 January 2002 Cover Contents Spacehawk Grim Reaper Girl Commandos Supermouse Letters/Cover Gallery Back Cover Click here to go back to the Library -Spacehawk and Supermouse scans by me. First posting. -Grim Reaper scans by Marble River. Originally posted on the newsgroup, alt.binaries.pictures.comics. -Girl Commandos scans by Spaceranger3000. Originally posted at the Monastery of the Green Lama.
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Wow! The mail bag is overflowing this month! Thanks to everyone who wrote in! Also, I want to direct your attention to our new letter column name and logo above! Does it look familiar? Good! If you're reading these Golden Age comics for the first time, or just don't know, allow me to introduce you to the characters above (from left to right): Kit Carter, Miss Masque, Blue Beetle, The Ray, Amazing-Man, Green Lama, Catman, and The Black Owl! This month we cover both All-Amazing #16 and the 2nd Annual. Let's get too it shall we? Steve,
Cheers,
Glad you've been enjoying everything, or at least a majority of it! I've got some great stuff loosely planned for 2002 with more "theme issues" including "Rerun Month" (I'll say more about it when the time comes), a Silver Age issue featuring the ACG heroes (since I don't believe anyone owns them, or at least their stories), a movie and radio issue, the possible return of All-Golden Comics (with a slightly altered format and schedule), a "history" of Yank and Doodle and the Black Owl, the Golden Years debut of Centaur material, and I haven't even mentioned my plans for the CD-ROMs!!! This is going to be a GREAT year! Steve,
Peter P.S. How about more Black Terror? Glad you like it! As for old Bob Benton, I have two more stories after my 4th CD comes out. I'll try to get him back on the site in the next couple of months. Since you said you don't get too many letters; I think you're doing a great job with a good variety of characters over the various issues. Not every issue is necessarily my cup of tea, but the overall job is a great service to the characters of the golden age and us readers/scholars of that era. As such, I enjoy when there is at least one story of a character I've never seen before, or only know a little about from the lesser known companies. Well, you've included one of my all time favorites this go around: The Owl. This is obviously from earlier in his career than the stories I've seen, the revealing of his secret identity, the monochromatic color scheme. Of course later, Belle will don an owl costume of her own and help him out on cases as Owl-Girl. I'm definitely looking forward to the All-Amazing Annual with Mr. Scarlet and Pinky. They, and Minute-Man, have long been my favorite characters of the Fawcett line, and I think for once it's a Mr. Scarlet story I don't have. "elove" I know I can't please all of the people all of the time, but I'm glad that the overall view of the series is good! The last year and a half on this site has been a good introduction to the heroes and heroines of the Golden Age, as well as give me time to build my Golden Age collection. When I started All-Amazing, I had three books of my own that I knew could reprint from, now I have over 100! Now that I have a good variety, I hope to do a few more organized things both here (see above), and on my CDs! Steve,
Richard Genereux P.S. Your cover gallery shows Archie, but the text is about Capt. Marvel Jr. 'Doh! I knew I forgot something in that issue! The Owl is certainly one of my favorites, but I've only read one or two other stories, and none of them are ones I can reprint! :-( As for the Ghost, I always like ANYTHING from Nedor (as you may have noticed). I hope that at least some of the sci-fi stories in Spotlight #6 met with your approval. As for Gorilla stories, I don't believe I have any, but I may just be forgetting. If I run across any I'll be sure to move them to the front of the reprint line! Maybe I can find one for the Silver Age issue though... Hi Steve!
Thanks,
Ask, and ye shall receive! It's up and better than ever with whiter, clearer scans! Hi it's me the former mrnatfred. The new All Amazing was great. I really enjoyed Mickey Finn since I vaguely remember the newspaper strip from when I was a kid. The Bulletman story was great too, as was the Ghost. The Owl was a bit surprising since the only other time I saw the character was in his silver age incarnation from Gold Key. "Mr. Natural" I'm glad it brought back some childhood memories! Here at the Golden Years, we aim to please! Steve,
First, I want to thank you for the Daredevil story you scanned for the annual. That story was from one of the first Daredevil issues that I ever read. I believe I bought that issue through the mail from an ad in the old fanzine "The Rocket's Blast and Comic Collector" (RBCC) back around 1970 or 1971. I've often thought about that story through the years and I long remembered details from it, like the name of the villain (Healy--an appropriate moniker) and the brand of cigarettes he smoked (Chesties). The story itself, although clever, is not unique. It was the kind of fare you could often find in detective pulps or B-movies. However, I believe that this particular topic, a scam played on the grieving survivors of a recently departed man, was a bit sophisticated for the run-of-the-mill comic books of the 1940's. But Lev Gleason comics were something special, and I think that this tale is a good example of the well written stories you could often find in them. Thanks for reviving some fond memories for me, Steve. One thing I really like about your books is the variety. Along with all the action heroes you usually include at least one humor feature, and I really like that. I especially enjoyed "Mickey Finn" in All-Amazing #16. The feature had a nice, good-natured, old timey feel to it and the art, although semi-cartoony, was very, very skillfully done. Keep up the good work, Steve. Although I don't have the time to read your site every day, I will catch up eventually. Take care,
I'm glad that the Daredevil story brought back such fond memories. I love Lev Gleason books, as you said, the quality of the stories are just so far above the rest of the books at the time, that there's just no comparison. In fact, there are a lot of books today that could learn a thing or two from Daredevil and Crimebuster! As for the format of my books, I'm glad you like it! I usually do superheroes for the first two features, a lower quality hero story or a high quality back-up for the third, and another back-up for the fourth (depending on what the third feature is). Spotlight Comics highlights a particular theme, and, if you like variety, I'm seriously thinking about bringing All-Golden back as a quarterly to feature a variety of genres (with 1 superhero in each issue). **Side note. I was on AC's web site after I wrote this, and it appears that they've had the same idea! Soon we'll see this variety in their new reprint anthology, "America's Greatest Comics!" Steve, I thought this was a good issue and I'm glad you finally used the scans by Marble River that you had missed. The Bulletman story made for a good lead story and I like Bulletgirl's close call. The Owl story is very compressed and a lot happens in a few pages but nothing is confusing nor does the story seem rushed. I also like the design of the Owl-plane and the landing of the Owl-plane on the dock, which is a very nice scene. I had not seen the Ghost story before and I was impressed by the way that the Ghost not only became a time traveler but also visited another planet in a mere nine pages; nice artwork on the story as well. Mickey Finn is a decent comedy feature, something that Columbia comics did well. For what it is worth,
Glad the issue met with your approval Jon! I love the art on the Ghost, in fact, it was one of the things that attracted me to it. Also, I agree with you about Columbia. It's quite obvious why Big Shot lasted over 100 issues! Steve,
All in all, this was a good issue and had some great artwork. Thanks,
Hmm, I don't think I've ever read any other "crime school" stories. I guess that's why Mr. Scarlet really stood out to me. In fact, I thought it was one of the best I've read (of course I've liked all Mr. Scarlet stories). Scarlet is one character who really should have been given his own book IMHO. I concur on Daredevil. All of his, and for that matter, all of the Lev Gleason stories I've read to date are top-notch. I always enjoy presenting them! As for Scarab and Devil's Dagger, I agree with you for the most part. The art, as you said, was great, and the first time I read the Scarab story (a little over a year ago) I really was indifferent. However, when I reread it, I loved it! I'm sorry to say I don't have any more right now. Devil's Dagger was a fair story as you said (which is why it got stuck in the middle of the "book"), but I didn't really see it as a "to be continued" story. Rather, I saw it as a stand-alone chapter in a larger story. Unfourtionatly many stories in that issue are "TBC" (including Bulletman) so I can't use a lot of it unless I can find issue 19. Really DD was included more as a historical oddity than as a grade-A story. (As are many things on this site.) With Chic Carter I really tried something many early 40's publishers did, or at least seemed to do, throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. I haven't read the issue yet, but I really wanted to use something, so I found Chic who appeared to have (at a quick glance) good action and plot. I guess I got lucky! And finally, I agree with you about the Stupid Manny story 100%. I had the exact same thoughts when I first read it. You know, Steve, I think I like voting and waiting to see who won as much as I like reading the stories. Can we do this again sometime soon? "jhegenbe" I plan to do the "Reader's Choice Issue" at least once a year, I guess I could do it in an issue of Spotlight Comics sometime this summer too... Remind me about it in case I forget! Whew! That's a lot of letters! See you folks next month! -Steve I WANT to hear from you! Tell me what you liked/disliked, loved/hated about this issue! If you have a request I can't promise that I can grant it but I'll see what I can do. Just e-mail me at Steve_Rogers_Captain_America@yahoo.com thanks! -Steve
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