Remembering Artist Rich Buckler

Remembering artist Rich Buckler on his birthday (February 6, 1949 - May 19, 2017) with a couple of his covers for Secret Society of Super-Villains (#13 and #14, March and April-May, 1978), where Captain Comet, the hero dedicated to fight the villains, gets thrown off the dimensional path, so instead of following them to Earth-2, ends up on Earth-3, where he fights the villains who looked like heroes, the Crime Syndicate of America, specifically Johnny Quick, Superwoman and Power Ring.

Remembering Artist Murphy Anderson

Remembering artist Murphy Anderson on his birthday (July 9, 1926 - October 22, 2015) with a little look at his Strange Adventures...that is, two science fiction series he worked on, Captain Comet and the Atomic Knights.

Captain Comet was Adam Blake, a mutant born before his time with incredible mental powers, and the Atomic Knights included Gardner Grayle, who awoke to find himself in a post-apocalyptic world.

More on Captain Comet here, and the Atomic Knights here!

While a collection of the Atomic Knights happened over a decade ago, a planned Archive for Captain Comet never happened due to the end of the DC Archive line.

 

Mysteries In Space

What better way to start off sci fi month than with this wraparound cover by Murphy Anderson to Mysteries In Space: The Best Of DC Science Fiction Comics, a Fireside book that was released in 1980, celebrating DC's science fiction titles, with a foreword and edited by Michael Uslan, featuring Mystery In Space's Adam Strange and Alanna fighting Strange Adventures' Flying Gorilla Meance...

...though these stories didn't appear within this tome.  

A shame, but here's what did....

The collection has many generic sci-fi stories, from Mystery In Space (#1, #8, #11, #19, #28, #35, #49, #61), Strange Adventures (#36, #134) Tales Of The Unexpected (#84)...

...as well as tales of the Martian Manhunter from Detective Comics #225, Captain Comet from Strange Adventures #22, Strange Sports Stories from Brave and the Bold #47, Space Museum from Strange Adventures #112, Space Cabby from Mystery In Space #42, Star Hawkins from Strange Adventures #125, Tommy Tomorrow from Real Fact Comics #6 and Action Comics #205, the Atomic Knights from Strange Adventures #117, Star Rovers from Mystery In Space #74...

...Space Ranger from Showcase #15, and Adam Strange from Showcase #17 and Mystery In Space #75 (with Kanjar Ro and the JLA!), though most of these features didn't end up on the covers of the issues presented in this book, and all of which suggests more to be covered in the future!

    

Superman Meets Captain Comet

Perhaps it was destiny that made young Kal-El of Krypton become Superman, also known as the Man of Tomorrow.   Tomorrow is where Adam Blake of Earth got his powers, being a mutant with mental powers born 100,000 years before his time under the light of a comet, so he became the Man of Destiny, Captain Comet.

What adventures these two would have together.....

DC Comics Presents #22

The first of their two solo team-ups happened in DC Comics Presents #22 (June, 1980) by Mike W. Barr, Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin, under a cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, as Superman found himself drawn into "The Plight Of the Human Comet".

A mysterious man showed up at the Daily Planet looking for Clark Kent, but was unable to find him, as Clark was out in the field covering a story (and changing into Superman to stop the looming environmental menace that a leaking oil tanker would cause).   That's where the mystery man found him, as he turned into a comet, and had to be stopped by Superman.  The mystery man was Captain Comet, who had been having "comet attacks" and losing his powers, coming to Superman for help to track down the meteor that gave him his powers.  Meanwhile, Starstriker, a new villain, who was born at the same time as Captain Comet, was looking for that meteor as well, to trigger his own latent mutant powers.  Superman found where the comet would next appear with data from his Fortress of Solitude....and the two headed there. with Starstriker in attendance as well, getting Captain Comet like powers, as Superman had to deal with Captain Comet having his last, potentially fatal "comet attack", which Superman saved him from.  Comet went to hunt down Starstriker, while Superman went to file a story....but, at the Daily Planet, found he couldn't use his powers.  Going to the JLA Satellite, Superman tracked down Starstriker, and faced off with him (as the villain had captured Captain Comet and drained his powers).  Superman freed Captain Comet, who faced off against Starstriker, while Superman stopped the villain's plan to end all life on Earth with 7 comet strikes.  The heroes both won, and had their problems negated. 

DC Comics Presents #91

The second of their two team-ups was in DC Comics Presents #91 (March, 1986) by Craig Boldman, Curt Swan and Dave Hunt, under a cover by Eduardo Barreto, with a similarly themed story called "The Brains That Stormed Metropolis".

This time around, the action started with Superman fighting Brain Storm (a JLA foe, who used a helmet to increase his intelligence, and fought from a floating chair).  Brain Storm was looking for a way to increase his own powers, when he saw Captain Comet stop a theft at the Metropolis Science Expo (coming for the exhibit on future man, and unsure why he has the powers of a man from the future, yet the appearance of a modern man).  Brain Storm lures the Captain to him, and starts to steal his power, but while Brain Storm gets powers, he also sees Captain Comet evolve into more of a future man!  As Brain Storm fights the evolved Captain Comet for a time with his new powers, he also loses his helmet, which gets picked up by Clark Kent's paranoid neighbor, who accidentally uses it to instill fear and paranoia in the citizens of Metropolis as Halley's Comet flies by.  Superman catches up with the battling duo, with Brain Storm telling Superman that along with the powers he got, he accidentally took away the restrictions Captain Comet had subconsciously placed on himself to live in the present...and that it would take his helmet to stop the problem.  Superman retrieves the helmet, and puts it on Captain Comet, who is restored to normal, undoing the damage caused, including removing Brain Storm's powers.

Strange Adventures

Captain Comet premiered in Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951) by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs in "The Origin Of Captain Comet".  Captain Comet would fight alien menaces with the help of Professor Emery Zackro and, the pair were joined by Lucy Torrence in Strange Adventures #11 (August, 1951), where usually at least one of them was there to help Captain Comet in his outer space adventures (usually with art by Murphy Anderson, except his last few stories, with art by Gil Kane or Sy Barry) until his original adventures ended in Strange Adventures #49 (October, 1954).  A complete collection of these stories was promised by DC Comics early in the 21st century, but sadly, these reprints did not happen....yet.

Still, Captain Comet returned, being the main hero battling the Secret Society of Super-Villains (starting with their second issue, during this time is when Captain Comet first met Superman, as well as a few side appearance with Tommy Tomorrow and the Atom), or working with the L.E.G.I.O.N., starting with issue #16, (June, 1990), and eventually finding his own way again, this time in the second volume of Mystery In Space, meeting the Weird, then becoming involved in the Rann/Thanagar Holy War along with Hawkman, Starfire, Adam Strange and more, and finally being in a run of issues 1 to 8 of Strange Adventures (also with the outer space Starman and Bizarro as well), and joining Adam Strange in L.E.G.I.O.N.  with the second R.E.B.E.L.S. title. 

Find The Strange Adventures Of Captain Comet

Captain Comet was a mutant, born 100,000 years ahead of his time (or over a decade before that group of kids and their professor came out as mutants against a magnetic menace...).

Adam Blake first appeared in Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951) by writer John Broome, penciller Carmine Infantino and inked by Bernard Sachs, complete with his origins...though later tales would be drawn by Murphy Anderson, and inked by Sy Barry, with Gil Kane and Sy Barry finishing the art on the series in Strange Adventures #49 (October, 1954).

But...

....where to find those thrilling 1950s tales of space-bound, super-heroic action with Captain Comet, his friend Professor Emery Zachro and lady librarian Lucy Torrence?

 
Well, continue on.....

Strange Adventures #14

First up on this ride is Strange Adventures #14 (November, 1951) and it is a "Destination Doom" by writer John Broome and artist Murphy Anderson, where Captain Comet was taken off Earth in his alter ego of Adam Blake (looking like an average man) by aliens, who deposit their prisoners on planet FV 782 to be slaves to the robots there who lost their living inhabitants.  Captain Comet destroys the power source of the robots, then makes a spaceship to take his fellow captives home.


This story was reprinted in DC Super-Stars #4 (June, 1976), along with reprints of adventures of Adam Strange and Space Ranger, all under an Ernie Chan cover.

Strange Adventures #17

"Beware The Synthetic Men" was the warning given in Strange Adventures #17 (February, 1952) by writer John Broome, penciller Murphy Anderson and inker Joe Giella, where Captain Comet faces off against five Synthetic Men, artificial humans created by the army that the army lost control over.  Finding his mental powers don't work on this menace, Captain Comet is forced to use his brain to think of a way to defeat this menace, and prevent them from making more of their kind!



This story was reprinted in DC Super-Stars #6 (August, 1976) along with reprints of stories with Adam Strange, Tommy Tomorrow and the Space Cabby!

Strange Adventures #22

With Strange Adventures #22 (July, 1952), things get in order, thanks to "The Guardians Of The Clockwork Universe" by writer John Broome, penciller Murphy Anderson and inker Sy Barry.  Captain Comet is enlisted by the Guardians of the Universe (not related to but extremely similar to the Guardians of the Universe that mentored the Green Lantern Corps).  They send Captain Comet to the planet Lukan, whose rulers plan on moving their planet, which would throw the cosmos into chaos, meeting with his old friend, Radea, a female evolutionary mutant that the captain had met before, and frees her from the rulers of Lukan while stopping their plan, then returns her to her home planet.

This story is reprinted in World's Finest Comics #204 (August, 1971), with a cover by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, that features a Superman/Wonder Woman team-up and in the Mysteries In Space: The Best Of DC Science Fiction Comics book of October, 1980, along with the origin of the Martian Manhunter, and stories of the Space Museum, Space Cabby, Star Hawkins, Tommy Tomorrow, the Atomic Knights, the Star Rovers, Space Ranger and Adam Strange with a cover by Murphy Anderson featuring Adam Strange facing a flying gorilla!

Strange Adventures #28

Strange Adventures #28 (January, 1953) is the next Captain Comet story to be reprinted, with the "Devil's Island In Space" by John Broome and Murphy Anderson, but this story has a twist....Earth is picked by the aliens of Lamia as a place to put its criminals, and Captain Comet has to stop the invisible alien crooks from escaping, using a stolen hydrogen bomb to power the spaceship they are building.  The captain stops the criminals, returning them to their homeworld, warning the rulers there that Earth is not as backward as they thought, and not to use the planet as a prison.

This story was reprinted in the Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told hardcover of 1990 with a cover by Joe Kubert and tradepaperback in 1992.

Strange Adventures #31

It's a real War of the Worlds in Strange Adventures #31 (April, 1953) by writer John Broome, penciller Murphy Anderson and inker Joe Giella, as Captain Comet becomes part of a re-enactment of Orson Wells' famous radio broadcast, but this time, it is for real, as real martians have replaced the actors in "Lights, Camera -- Invasion".  Captain Comet must break free from the aliens who have taken him captive and prevent them from taking over the Earth!

This story was reprinted in the Pulp Fiction Library: Mystery In Space tradepaperback of 1999, under a cover by Mitch O'Connell, and features many great science fiction stories, including tales of Tommy Tomorrow, Chris KL-99, Knights of the Galaxy, Space Cabby, Star Hawkins, Adam Strange, the Star Rovers, Space Ranger and Ultra the Multi-Alien!

Strange Adventures #34

With Strange Adventures #34 (July, 1953), you have a choice..."The Lady Or The Tiger Man" (by John Broome and Murphy Anderson).  Captain Comet discovers a new planet, ruled by an evil dictator, Esklon, who also has mental powers.  The captain frees the Tiger-Man, who then battles with him, until Esklon shoots him, revealing that it was the Tiger-Man who was the dictator, controlling him with his own mental powers.  Captain Comet frees the girl, Rana, who is Esklon's sister, and takes her with him to Earth.


This story is reprinted in Superman #244 (November, 1971) along with a new Superman story, and a Superman of 2465 reprint, all under a cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson!

Strange Adventures #38

The last of the reprinted Captain Comet tales is Strange Adventures #38 (November, 1953) is "The Seeing-Eye Humans" by John Broome and Murphy Anderson, wherein Captain Comet and other humans are taken captive by aliens who take them to another planet, Reyna, whose inhabitants have been blinded by a nova from a nearby star.  Captain Comet helps lead the captives to freedom and tells the people of Reyna that they will adapt to being blind, and must make it on their own.


This story is reprinted in Justice League of America #60 (February, 1968), the story where Batgirl works with the JLA against the outer space menace of Zazzala, the Queen Bee (beautifully depicted in this cover by Murphy Anderson).

Now, some of these reprints are old as well...and DC was planning a Captain Comet Archives (announced in December of 2012 for August of 2013), but sadly, the Archive program ended before this book could be published (which would have included all of Captain Comet's Strange Adventures and his first 4 tales from the Secret Society of Super-Villains #2 to #5 from the 1970s; though maybe they could have included the tale of Captain Comet teaming up with Tommy Tomorrow to face dinosaurs and Chronos instead?).

One can only hope that DC will find a way to collect the original tales of Captain Comet in the future....

Remembering Murphy Anderson

Murphy Anderson was an artist and an inker, working primarily for DC Comics, whose work ranged from the Silver Age Hawkman, to Captain Comet, the Spectre, Adam Strange, the team-ups of Hourman and Dr. Fate and of Black Canary and Starman, and co-creating Zatanna and the Atomic Knights; as well as years of working as the main inker for Curt Swan on Superman and Action Comics.

Working primarily in DC's Silver Age (though quite a bit of work before it), Murphy's clean style was appreciated by many, he won a 1962 Alley Award for Best Inker, a 1963 Alley Award for "artist preferred on Justice League of America", 1964 Alley Awards for "Best Inking Artist" and "Best Comic Book Cover" for Detective Comics #329, 1965 Alley Awards for "Best Inking Artist", "Best Comic Book Cover" for Brave and the Bold #61 and "Best Novel" for Showcase #55.

Murphy's awards continued to stack up, being inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1998, the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2013 into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.  Murphy was born on July 9th, 1926, and passed away this month at 89.

Best to let his work speak for itself!

Captain Comet in Strange Adventures

Strange Adventures

Starman and Black Canary

Hawkman and Adam Strange

Murphy's favorite

The Atomic Knights

In Action with Curt Swan

Superman and The Flash

Murphy, we'll miss you!

Dinosaurs With Captain Comet and Tommy Tomorrow

It only took a few hundred million years for everything to come together correctly to allow DC Special #27 (April-May, 1977, by Bob Rozakis and Rich Buckler) with the title of "Danger: Dinosaurs At Large!" to take place.

The dinosaurs were the easy part...getting the rest of the players in place took a little more work!


Here's a quick look at the major players in the story.....

....which weren't the Justice League (though members Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Black Canary do guest-star in the issue....instead it was an honorary League member that had most of the action!).

Mutant From The Future

Adam Blake was born ahead of his time (about 100,000 years ahead).  This lad was born as a comet flashed through the sky which mutated him into a type of future man, with enhanced strength, speed and mental powers like telekinesis, telepathy and a photographic memory.  Starting with Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951, by John Broome and Carmine Infantino),  and the help of Dr. Emery Zackro (who explains to the lad his mutant status) the newly named hero Captain Comet begins his career of fighting aliens, robots and other odd menaces (with art by Murphy Anderson in most of his appearances). 

Captain Comet could also be called the first Silver Age hero (as his debut was separate from the Justice Society of America, yet before the Martian Manhunter in Detective Comics #225 or Flash/Barry Allen in Showcase #4).  Along the way, he also picked up a girlfriend, librarian Lucy Torrence with Strange Adventures #11 (Carmine Infantino's last drawn issue), and their adventures run from Strange Adventures #9-44, 46 and 49 (49 coming out in October, 1954). 

Captain Comet then left Earth, not to return until Secret Society of Super-Villains #2 (July-August, 1976) where he fought Green Lantern (a character that used some basic ideas established in Comet's own series such as the Guardians of the Universe) mistakenly thinking GL was the villain.  Captain Comet soon learned the truth, and aided the Justice League (and members of the Teen Titans as well) against the Secret Society for the rest of that series run (until the series was cancelled).  Captain Comet popped up meeting with Superman in two issues of DC Comic Presents (#22 and #91), attended the Atom's wedding in Justice League of America #157...and worked with the Forgotten Heroes in the Crisis on Infinite Earths as well. 

After the Crisis, the Captain worked with the L.E.G.I.O.N. and R.E.B.E.L.S. (two groups of interstellar police that worked under Vril Dox, the "son" of Superman foe, Brainiac) and more recently, was teamed with other outer space heroes (like Adam Strange, Hawkman, the Weird, Starfire and Starman) in the Rann-Thanagar War, Infinite Crisis, 52, Mystery In Space and back to a new volume of Strange Adventures before Flashpoint rewrote DC history (yet, Captain Comet came back in Action Comics to face the New 52 Superman!).

Future Man Adventures

Tommy Tomorrow was a famous 21st century spaceman, working as a Colonel in the Space Planeteers, keeping the Earth and other people safe from menaces and criminals!  Tommy first appeared in Real Fact Comics #6 in the "Columbus Of Space" (by writers Jack Schiff, George Kashdan, and Bernie Breslauer and artists Howard Sherman and Virgil Finley).  Tommy comes back for issues #8, 13 and 16, but only made the covers shown.  These issues also have facts that are contradicted in later issues of Tommy's regular series, which run as back-ups in Action Comics from #127-251, then World's Finest Comics #102-124, until DC tried to give Tommy and his friend and fellow Planeteer Capt. Brent Wood his own series with issues starting with Showcase (#41 in November-December, 1962 by Arnold Drake and Lee Elias), who did all of Tommy's appearances in Showcase (#41, 42, 44, 46 and 47), but this series ended up being the first real failure of Showcase...Tommy didn't graduate into his own book, instead, not appearing until the DC Special mentioned above. 

Tommy did show up in Crisis on Infinite Earths, wherein at the end of the timeline, it was revealed that Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, grew up to be Tommy Tomorrow (after being found by Horatio Tomorrow...a story which contradicts Action Comics #255 of August, 1959, in which Supergirl met the young boy Tommy in the 21st Century in a story by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney....but, she was erased from DC history for a time as well).  Tommy Tomorrow came back in a series called Twilight by DC in 1990 by Howard Chaykin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (which also included the Star Rovers, the Space Museum, Manhunter 2070 and Star Hawkins), but that had little to do with the rest of the DC Universe....unlike the villain of the piece!

Man Out Of Time

Chronos was a foe of the Atom, starting with Atom #3 (October-November, 1962 by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane).  David Clinton started off as a thief with obsessed with time, and later matures into a major DC villain, joining the Crime Champions, the Time Foes, Secret Society of Super-Villains, and the Injustice Gang of the World (and even plays baseball against the heroes with a group of villains, which he did just before participating in this story), as well as facing Elongated Man, Wonder Woman, Superman & Batman and Blue Beetle (as well as come later encounters with dinosaurs, and even inspiring a heroic Chronos, aka Walker Gabriel who had 12 issues of his own in 1998-1999).

For the purposes of this story, Chronos causes the problem which brings Tommy Tomorrow into the present day, as well as the dinosaurs, including the mutated dinosaur man seen on the cover, Tyrano Rex bringing us full circle!  This dinosaur man was mutated by a meteor and traveled through time to the modern day just to be defeated by Tommy Tomorrow and Captain Comet, proving that dinosaurs and radiation just shouldn't mix!