Strange Adventures In The Snow

Still in the grip of winter, but it could be worse!  

The snowmen could be attacking!

Here's how that happened in Strange Adventures #79 (April, 1957) under a cover by Gil Kane, with story by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs.

Invaders From The Ice World!

It all started innocent enough, with kids at an Iowa farmhouse making snowmen in a field.  Then, the snowmen came to life...and disappeared!  The snowmen wandered off, with the boys' father calling the Department of Scientific Investigations, who sent scientist Darwin Jones to the scene.  

There, he found out the snowmen were inhabited by energy being from Pluto, who planned to make Earth colder by destroying crops, making Earth uninhabitable for humans.  All the warfare was unable to stop them...until Darwin Jones figures out the best way to stop the snowmen was cold....absolute zero!  This froze their bodies, making them vulnerable, so the energy beings gave up attacking Earth.

This was not the first appearance of Darwin Jones, who was an infrequent star of Strange Adventures (issues #1, #49, #58, #66, #70, #76, #77, #79, #84, #88, #93, #149 and #160, before helping Lois Lane in Daring Adventures Of Supergirl #7, aiding the scientists during Crisis On Infinite Earths, then returning in Power Of The Atom and Action Comics.

  

Celebrating Artist Sal Buscema

Celebrating artist Sal Buscema on his birthday (January 26, 1936) with a pair of Incredible Hulk covers...and, for all the issues in Incredible Hulk Sal drew, it is surprising that these two were the only issues of the regular series whose covers he drew (#277 and #278, November and December, 1982).

But, here are a few extra from the 1980s (showing the effects of a different inker on Sal's art!).

Remembering Artist Marshall Rogers

Remembering artist Marshall Rogers on his birthday (Jannuary 22, 1950 - March 24, 2007) with the 1980s mini-series, Shadow Of The Batman, which had cinematic wraparound covers by Marshall...

...featuring the stories from his memorable run on Detective Comics in the 1970s, featuring villains Dr. Phosphorus (though Walt Simonson did the art on these), Rupert Thorne, Hugo Strange, Deadshot, Penguin, Joker and Clayface III, as well as Bruce Wayne's lady love, Silver St. Cloud.

Shadow Of The Batman #1, (December, 1985)

.

Shadow Of The Batman #2, (January, 1986)

.

Shadow Of The Batman #3, (February, 1986)

.

Shadow Of The Batman #4, (March, 1986)

.

Shadow Of The Batman #5, (April, 1986)

.

Celebrating Artist Joe Staton

Celebrating the birthday of Eisner Award winning artist, Joe Staton (January 19, 1948) with a Showcase of his covers featuring Power Girl!

Joe handled covers and art for Power Girl's appearances in Showcase, and followed her back to All-Star Comics to finish up that run with the Justice Society of America in the 1970s!

Showcase #97 and #98 (February and March, 1978)

.

Showcase #99 and All-Star Comics #72 (April and May-June, 1978)

.

All-Star Comics #73 and All-Star Comics #74 (July-August and September-October, 1978)

.

Celebrating Artist Joe Quesada

Before he went over to Marvel, Joe Quesada worked at DC.  For Joe's birthday (January 12, 1962), time to shed some light on one of his early projects....the Ray.

While he drew the insides of every issue, he only did the later 4 covers (as well as the tradepaperback).  

The series covered the story of Ray Terrill, the son of the original Ray (Happy Terrill).  Ray had been protected from the sun (supposedly because of an allergy), but was really there to prevent his powers from manifesting.  He did see the light, found out of his powers and legacy, then battled Green Lantern villain Dr. Polaris, as well as an alien light entity.

Ray #3 and #4 (April and May, 1992)

.

Ray #5 and #6 (June and July, 1992)

.

Ray Tradepaperback

Celebrating Artist Karl Kesel

Celebrating the birthday of Karl Kesel (January 7, 1959)...

...with two covers he penciled and inked for Hawk & Dove (#8 and #13 from January and June, 1990...

...though he inked almost all the issues of this 28 run, and co-wrote them with his wife, Barbara), with Hank and Dawn facing M.A.C. the robot and Shellshock.

 

Remembering Artist Russ Manning

Remembering artist Russ Manning on his birthday (January 5, 1929 - December 1, 1981)...

...with a quick look at a serialized feature that ran in the back of Gold Key's Magnus: Robot Fighter series from February, 1963 to November, 1969...

...The Aliens.

The Aliens was a short feature following the adventures of Captain Johner and his crew in the far future, where they first encounter alien life.  At first adversarial, the crews of the ships learn to work together, with members of Johner's crew going off with the aliens, while Commander Zarz and 3 of his crew join Johner to face the unknown, including a group called the False Men.

Gold Key/Whitman reprinted chapters 1 and 3-10 twice, in the two volumes pictured above, once in September-December, 1967 and the second time in May, 1982.

Valiant gave readers two collections of The Aliens (though the covers were not by Manning), with the first containing the first 7 chapters, the second, the next 7 chapters in May, 1995.

Manning seems to have left the series after issue #22 (May, 1968).  Sadly, the original series ended on a cliffanger in issue #28 (November, 1969), with Johner, Zarz and new crew member M'Reema defeating a space wizard (but left with a lifeless planet Earth, covered in ice).

  

A More Fun New Year

May you have a Happy New Year, and celebrate today however you will...but don't get caught like Spike Spalding did on this cover to More Fun Comics #17 (January, 1937) by Vin Sullivan.

Spike was an ordinary kid of the time who got into extraordinary trouble, including being mistaken for the young king (Philip) of Patrania, leading to Spike being kidnapped by the evil Count Alex.

Spike appeared starting in New Fun #3 (April, 1935) up to More Fun Comics #30 (March-April, 1938), all predating the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics.