Back in the early 1960s, I was an avid reader of DC comics. The Flash was my favorite, followed closely by Green Lantern. But, I was also fond of Adam Strange, a man from Earth who traveled to the planet of Rann by means of a “Zeta-beam.” Adam Strange falls in love with Alanna and spends much of the comic book series saving her and her planet from invasions of weird aliens.
I also enjoyed the stories by Gardner Fox and the scintillating artwork by legendary Carmine Infantino. Most of the Adam Strange stories had a mystery within them that Strange needed to solve in order to save the planet.
This is the second Archive Edition of Adam Strange and I found it just as enjoyable as the First Archive Edition. If you want to take a walk down Memory Lane, this is a good place to start! Did you have a favorite comic book series as a kid? GRADE: A
I was never much of a DC reader when I was a kid; I especially detested the soap opera-y take that Batman, Superman, and their close associates (Lpis Lane, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, Batmite, Bizarro, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and various pets — super or otherwise; I didn’t mind Supergirl that much because she was hot!) — and don’t get me started on Wonder Woman! I did have a fondness for some of the minor DC characters, particularly Congorilla and the Challengers of the Unknown. I know I must have read some of the Adam Strange adventures, but I simply don’t remember them.
Jerry, if I find an Adam Strange Archive volume, I’ll send it to you. I think you’d enjoy the mystery aspects to these comic book adventures!
I don’t think I had a specific favourite. I read the superhero, Western, SF, and war comics indiscriminately, whether DC, Marvel, Charlton, Dell, or Gold Key, along with Classics Illustrated. Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko always delivered. I have the huge Adam Strange Silver Age Omnibus published in 2017, bought it on impulse when Amazon temporarily lowered the whopping price tag.
Fred, I had a feeling you might be an Adam Strange fan!
Not really. Never read Adam Strange. I asked Jackie her favorite and she said the Archie series. My brother was big on DC and early Marvel. I was never a fan of the Batman, so most of the modern movies have left me cold.
Oh, one can be a fan or former fan of various Batman adaptations, and still find the Christopher Nolan films, particularly, an overblown waste of time.
The a/v versions I’ve liked best in the last decade or so have been television series: GOTHAM, PENNYWORTH and THE PENGUIN (all more or less laying groundwork for Bruce Wayne’s vigilante career). And the animated series have often been rather good, not least the feature-length film MASK OF THE PHANTASM.
Todd, I like the animated series, too.
Jeff, I stopped reading comic books around 1965 when I switched to reading paperbacks almost exclusively.
I missed Adan Strange altogether, but did enjoy the ’70s version of Challengers of the Unknown, who struck me as an even more angsty version of the Fantastic Four at the time (they were, I believe, a backing feature in DETECTIVE COMICS at the time, along with ManBat. Carmine Infantino was mostly an editor by that time, IIRC.
I was a horror-seeker in comics as well, so was drawn to WEIRD WAR STORIES, WEIRD WESTERN/JONAH HEX, THE SPECTRE, and to some extent HOUSE OF MYSTERY and the other horror comics at DC (particularly the fat issues which reprinted 1950s stories–THE WITCHING HOUR was often good there). Aside from the Spectre, Batman was probably my favorite hero character, but I would pick up a few issues of Marvel’s WEREWOLF-BY-NIGHT (and reprint comic DEAD OF NIGHT) and others on occasion, and Gold Key (TWILIGHT ZONE) and Charlton’s (HAUNTED gave my first exposure to translated manga) horror anthology comics, read random EC reprints, et al. But the first comic I recall reading might well’ve been a ’69 or ’70 issue of JOURNEY INTO SPACE…it was definitely a DC sf book leaning toward horror, with a lead story about a multi-species kid’s summer camp where some skullduggery was going on behind the scenes, and a backing story about a vaguely hippy artist type wandering through a WW3/atomigeddon scenario. Still trying to locate that one.
Todd, I read many of the comic book series you mention. I was briefly a fan of SARGENT ROCK–they’re making a movie about him!. Loved TWILIGHT ZONE, too!
Or, even, MYSTERY IN SPACE.
As a teenager I read some of the Walt Disneyd comics like Big Bad Wolf Yes, that’s me!) but when I turned 18 and went to university I found them totally boring, especially Superman, Batman etc
How could anybody spend his hard earned money there?
And most Germans at that time didn’t have money.
So I wwent to the “America House” to read SF books, magazines – and the New York Times which arrived one day after publication.
That also helped me with my knowledge of the English language which wasn’t common in Germany then.
Well, Wolf, the average age for “mainstream” comic books was probably around 9-10yo…at least in the ’70s. MAD magazine probably skewed a bit older, along with many if not most of its imitators (from CRACKED to PLOP! to NATIONAL LAMPOON, a spinoff, of course, of the similarly sophomoric college humor magazine HARVARD LAMPOON, and their similarly inconsistent-at-best version of METAL HURLANT, HEAVY METAL. And “underground” comics still flourished (WIMMIN’S COMIX was a favorite of mine that i gathered back as well as current issues of in the ’80s) that were aimed at actually adult (in mindset) readers, as opposed to the arrested adolescence of much of the LAMPOON. Such arty anthology comics as RAW and the Michael Moorcock-adaptations and the like of Pacific Comics, also rather better work.
I was very lucky as a kid with comics. My grandfather was a plumber, and one day working in some guy’s basement he saw boxes of comic books. He mentioned his grandson liked to read comics, and the guy generously told Pop-Pop to take a box home with him, let me read them, and when I was done bring them back. I happily read and reread everything in there — it didn’t matter what it was. And it was ALL in there. Superman, Batman, Uncle Scrooge, Millie the Model, Sgt. Rock, the Rawhide Kid, Classics Illustrated. Eventually that box was returned, and magically another took its place. Space Cabbie, Jimmy Olsen, Little Lulu, Doom Patrol, Adam Strange, Richie Rich, eventually Spider-man and the Fantastic Four. (But, Todd, no memory of Journey into Space.). (My younger brother, not understanding the on-loan business, swiped some of the early Matvels. He reread them to shreds.)
I’ve occasionally bought some of the big hardcover collections of old comics, but I really like the 500-page trade paperbacks. Originally they were black and white reprints, but about ten years ago Marvel started its Epic line in color. They’ve put out hundreds of these collections; I have restrained myself and only bought a couple dozen. Now, finally, after several false starts, DC has started an ambitious program called DC Finest (a much inferior name to Marvel Epic). This line just started in November, with five titles. They’re doing a steady three a month. As DC was what I read as a kid, I’ve been happily snatching these up. Alas, they are proving to be hard to read now.
The early Superman comics from the 1930s are fascinating as he fought gangsters and corrupt politicians and uncaring industrialists. These were new to me. They aren’t great, but interesting. The ones from my era, the 50s and early 60s, are proving disappointing. The Flash — starting with the first Barry Allen issue — isn’t bad, but not as good as I hoped. The Justice League of America, my favorite as a kid, is just meh. They started with what is probably Volume 3, and there’s just no magic there.
I started the 1940s Justice Society of America volume last night — it begins at the beginning,, with All-Star Comics #3 — and it’s just awful. I’m hoping it improves as they figure out how to do a team book, but I’m not optimistic. My “favorite” bit has been when Hawkman and Shiera go into a volcano to investigate the bad guys, and they put on asbestos suits. Except for Hawkman-s wings, somehow impervious to the heat — and, I guess to avoid putting Shiera in pants, her legs are bare.
Adam Strange was a definite favorite back in the day, and I will undoubtedly buy a book when they put one out (not on the schedule yet), but I don’t have great hopes.