The Best of 1970-1974

[Air Wave]

What are your favorite stories, arcs, etc., from this period?

[Timothy Hunter]

I read the showcase trade paperback collecting the obscure DC Comics anthology Secrets of Sinister House, and it was very good, all of the stories were very snappy.

[The Darknight Detective]

This era was the one where I was first introduced to comics, but DC wasn't the first for me (that was Gold Key's The Pink Panther when I was in first grade back in '72). I had to wait a year before I got my first DC titles (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and The Legion of Super-Heroes) while I was in the hospital. It wasn't until 1975 when I got my next DC comic (Batman! - my mother saw me eyeing it at the stationery store and picked it up for me)), but by then I had read quite a bit from that company from friends at school.

Favorite story? That's very difficult for me to say, but this will do for now:



Before this comic, I was a fan of Batman, but no more than Superman or Spidey (the same could be said for the Joker among the villains). After this one, however, Bats went to #1 for good, as well as the Clown Prince of Crime among the super baddies.

[Jim Kelly]

This was the Relevance Era and DC put out a lot of high quality books.

On BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS, Frank Robbins with Irv Novick and Bob Brown created some really good detective stories. And then Dennis O'Neil introduced the League of Assassins. Neal Adams was a frequent guest artist on some really great Batman stories--like "Night of the Reaper." At the same time O'Neil and Adams created the ground-breaking adventures of Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen in GREEN LANTERN--including the award winning "Snowbrids Don't Fly"/"More Deadly than the Atom Bomb."

Meanwhile, O'Neil became the regular writer on SUPERMAN and Clark's life was shaken up with the Sand Superman Saga. The whole line of Superman titles went through drastic changes and Jack Kirby came on board JIMMY OLSEN, where he introduced Darkseid, Intergang, the Project, the new Newsboy Legion and the new Guardian. That was the first of Kirby's Fourth World titles where he introduced NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE, FOREVER PEOPE, Supertown/New Genesis, Apokolips, Big Barda, Oberon, Orion, Lightray, Granny Goodness, et al.

Kirby would go on to create THE DEMON and KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH.

DC licensed the rights to THE SHADOW with Denny O'Neil editing that title, which featured artwork by new artist Mike Kaluta--with wonderful cover art by Kaluta. DC also licensed the rights to Captain Marvel from Fawcett, with Julius Schwartz editing (WITH ONE MAGIC WORD) SHAZAM! O'Neil wrote many of the early issues, and creator C.C. Beck providing the art.

Gold Key gave up the licensing rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs creations and so when DC got the rights, Joe Kubert became the new editor--writing and lllustrating TARZAN OF THE APES, which had some amazing adaptations of ERB's novels and new stories. At the same time they published WEIRD WORLDS, with adaptations of other ERB properties like John Carter of Mars. And KORAK, SON OF TARZAN, with Kaluta doing the back-up feature that adapted Carson of Venus--that title in turn became TARZAN FAMILY, including new stories and reprints of Russ Manning's Tarzan work.

Joe Kubert likewise edited RIMA THE JUNGLE GIRL, which adapted brilliantly GREEN MANSIONS, with Kubert doing layouts and the amazing Nestor Redondo doing finishes--while Bob Kanigher scripted these stories. Redondo also took over the art from Bernie Wrightson on SWAMP THING, written by Len Wein--that title was edited by Joe Orlando. Having previously been an EC artist, Joe Orlando brought that influence to his mystery anthologies like HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS--with all of DC's many talents contributing stories to these horrors. Those also featured gags by Sergio Aragones which led to the all-humour title PLOP!

Also edited by Joe Orlando was THE PHANTOM STRANGER featuring some of Jim Aparo's best artwork. And Len Wein wrote a lot of the stories for that title. As back-up features you had Doctor Thirteen, the Spawn of Frankenstein and Black Orchid--who came over to the Stranger's title from ADVENTURE COMICS. And in Orlando's ADVENTURE, in addition to Orchid (by Mayer and DeZuniga), there were features like Captain Fear (by Alex Nino) and the Spectre (by Fleisher and Aparo).

Jim Aparo also worked on the bulk of the team-ups with Batman in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, scripted by Bob Haney.

In 1971-72, DC added extra pages to all their standard format titles, which became 48 pages for 25 cents. The extra 16 pages were used mostly for reprints, but the amount of new pages was increased--and in TARZAN, Kubert just added mostly new material. During this period, DC introduced the 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR, which started out as all reprints for 50 cents. But in 1974, many DC titles (including BATMAN, 'TEC, B&B, SHAZAM! JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and WORLD'S FINEST COMICS) became bi-monthly Super Specs (for 60 cents).

Also in 1974, Archie Goodwin replaced Julius Schwart on DETECTIVE. The back-up feature became The Manhunter by Goodwin and Walt Simonson. Goodwin and Aparo did the first two Batman stories in Archie's run, but then a number of different creative teams did the following stories--including one of the greatest Batman stories ever (in my opinion) "Night of the Stalker" by Steve Englehart, Sal Amendola and Dick Giordano. And Goodwin teamed up with Alex Toth for the Batman story, "Death Flies the Haunted Skies." All that and excellent reprints of Batman, Hawkman, Plastic Man, Kid Eternity etc.

And that's just some of the good stuff that you could get in the early '70s. There was much much more to praise in those years.

[Lemurion]

This was the Relevance Era and DC put out a lot of high quality books.

On BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS, Frank Robbins with Irv Novick and Bob Brown created some really good detective stories. And then Dennis O'Neil introduced the League of Assassins. Neal Adams was a frequent guest artist on some really great Batman stories--like "Night of the Reaper." At the same time O'Neil and Adams created the ground-breaking adventures of Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen in GREEN LANTERN--including the award winning "Snowbrids Don't Fly"/"More Deadly than the Atom Bomb."

Meanwhile, O'Neil became the regular writer on SUPERMAN and Clark's life was shaken up with the Sand Superman Saga. The whole line of Superman titles went through drastic changes and Jack Kirby came on board JIMMY OLSEN, where he introduced Darkseid, Intergang, the Project, the new Newsboy Legion and the new Guardian. That was the first of Kirby's Fourth World titles where he introduced NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE, FOREVER PEOPE, Supertown/New Genesis, Apokolips, Big Barda, Oberon, Orion, Lightray, Granny Goodness, et al.

Kirby would go on to create THE DEMON and KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH.

DC licensed the rights to THE SHADOW with Denny O'Neil editing that title, which featured artwork by new artist Mike Kaluta--with wonderful cover art by Kaluta. DC also licensed the rights to Captain Marvel from Fawcett, with Julius Schwartz editing (WITH ONE MAGIC WORD) SHAZAM! O'Neil wrote many of the early issues, and creator C.C. Beck providing the art.

Gold Key gave up the licensing rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs creations and so when DC got the rights, Joe Kubert became the new editor--writing and lllustrating TARZAN OF THE APES, which had some amazing adaptations of ERB's novels and new stories. At the same time they published WEIRD WORLDS, with adaptations of other ERB properties like John Carter of Mars. And KORAK, SON OF TARZAN, with Kaluta doing the back-up feature that adapted Carson of Venus--that title in turn became TARZAN FAMILY, including new stories and reprints of Russ Manning's Tarzan work.

Joe Kubert likewise edited RIMA THE JUNGLE GIRL, which adapted brilliantly GREEN MANSIONS, with Kubert doing layouts and the amazing Nestor Redondo doing finishes--while Bob Kanigher scripted these stories. Redondo also took over the art from Bernie Wrightson on SWAMP THING, written by Len Wein--that title was edited by Joe Orlando. Having previously been an EC artist, Joe Orlando brought that influence to his mystery anthologies like HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS--with all of DC's many talents contributing stories to these horrors. Those also featured gags by Sergio Aragones which led to the all-humour title PLOP!

Also edited by Joe Orlando was THE PHANTOM STRANGER featuring some of Jim Aparo's best artwork. And Len Wein wrote a lot of the stories for that title. As back-up features you had Doctor Thirteen, the Spawn of Frankenstein and Black Orchid--who came over to the Stranger's title from ADVENTURE COMICS. And in Orlando's ADVENTURE, in addition to Orchid (by Mayer and DeZuniga), there were features like Captain Fear (by Alex Nino) and the Spectre (by Fleisher and Aparo).

Jim Aparo also worked on the bulk of the team-ups with Batman in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, scripted by Bob Haney.

In 1971-72, DC added extra pages to all their standard format titles, which became 48 pages for 25 cents. The extra 16 pages were used mostly for reprints, but the amount of new pages was increased--and in TARZAN, Kubert just added mostly new material. During this period, DC introduced the 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR, which started out as all reprints for 50 cents. But in 1974, many DC titles (including BATMAN, 'TEC, B&B, SHAZAM! JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and WORLD'S FINEST COMICS) became bi-monthly Super Specs (for 60 cents).

Also in 1974, Archie Goodwin replaced Julius Schwart on DETECTIVE. The back-up feature became The Manhunter by Goodwin and Walt Simonson. Goodwin and Aparo did the first two Batman stories in Archie's run, but then a number of different creative teams did the following stories--including one of the greatest Batman stories ever (in my opinion) "Night of the Stalker" by Steve Englehart, Sal Amendola and Dick Giordano. And Goodwin teamed up with Alex Toth for the Batman story, "Death Flies the Haunted Skies." All that and excellent reprints of Batman, Hawkman, Plastic Man, Kid Eternity etc.

And that's just some of the good stuff that you could get in the early '70s. There was much much more to praise in those years.

I got into comics around 1973-74 and I still remember Chaykin's Ironwolf from the last three issues of WEIRD WORLDS, the Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter from DETECTIVE, and the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories from SWORD OF SORCERY. DC was doing amazing things.

[Jim Kelly]

In the late '60s, you had some young writers coming to work for DC--Jim Shooter, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman and Len Wein. Denny O'Neil was a bit seasoned already by then, having been a journalist and then a writer at Charlton. Neal Adams had been around already for awhile, before he came to DC. Pretty much everyone else was middle-aged. But then in the early '70s, a lot of young artists came to DC--Bernie Wrightson, Howie Chaykin, Mike Kaluta, Walt Simonson, Dave Cockrum--followed by Mike Grell, Jim Sherman, Mike Nasser (Netzer), Pat Broderick, et al. Consider that most of the other artists, pre-1970, had been working in the industry since the '40s or '50s--Irv Novick had actually got his start in 1939.

Also at this time, Carmine Infantino and Joe Orlando went to the Phillipines to hire a bunch of Flipino artists--who were all quite experienced and used to putting out high quality art in record time--Tony DeZuniga, Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala, Alex Nino, E.R. Cruz, Gerry Talaoc, Ernie Chan, Fred Carillo and others.

[The Darknight Detective]

Irv Novick had actually got his start in 1939.

That's amazing to think about, since I always found his work to be modern looking at the time. While his earlier stuff was also very good, the style fit that era better than it would have by the '70s.

[Air Wave]

The Forever People #1 from 1971.

TheForeverPeople1.jpg

[Air Wave]

New Gods #1 from 1971.

NewGods1.jpg

[Air Wave]

Mister Miracle #1 from 1971.

MisterMiracle1.jpg

[Air Wave]

And also from 1971, House of Secrets #92. The first appearance of Swamp Thing.

SwampThing.jpg

[Air Wave]

Secrets of Sinister House #5 from 1972

Screen Shot 2017-08-28 at 10.10.19 AM.jpg

[Air Wave]

DC gets the rights to Captain Marvel in 1973 (but can't use his name in the title).

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 11.51.32 AM.jpg

[Jim Kelly]

DC gets the rights to Captain Marvel in 1973 (but can't use his name in the title).

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 11.51.32 AM.jpg

They can't use his name in the official title of the comic but--as you can see from the early covers of With One Magic Word . . . SHAZAM! The Original Captain Marvel--they were using the name Captain Marvel on the covers (but not as the official title of the comic as noted in the indicia, which was SHAZAM). They did that for the first fourteen issues, but switched to The World's Mightiest Mortal as of issue 15. So DC must have believed it was okay to use the name Captain Marvel on the cover just as long it wasn't the trademarked title of the comic. But I guess Marvel's lawyers had different ideas. Maybe they could argue putting Captain Marvel's name anywhere on the cover was a violation of Marvel's trademark.

[Air Wave]

They can't use his name in the official title of the comic but--as you can see from the early covers of With One Magic Word . . . SHAZAM! The Original Captain Marvel--they were using the name Captain Marvel on the covers (but not as the official title of the comic as noted in the indicia, which was SHAZAM). They did that for the first fourteen issues, but switched to The World's Mightiest Mortal as of issue 15. So DC must have believed it was okay to use the name Captain Marvel on the cover just as long it wasn't the trademarked title of the comic. But I guess Marvel's lawyers had different ideas. Maybe they could argue putting Captain Marvel's name anywhere on the cover was a violation of Marvel's trademark.

And we only gave up on calling him Captain Marvel recently. I wish we hadn't but I get it.