The Earth is full of monsters.
In one month alone, for example, you might run into a Lava Creature, a Giant Sea Beast and a Magnetic Monster down there.
And that month would be June 1960, when The Brave and the Bold 31 went on sale at newsstands.
That issue, written by Ed Herron and drawn by Bruno Premiani, introduced spelunker Cave Carson and his intrepid yellow-clad band (Bulldozer Smith, Johnny Blake, and Christie Madison).
In coming up with Carson, DC followed the path blazed by Edgar Rice Burroughs a half-century before. When you’ve used up Mars, Venus and the jungle as locales, why not go underground?
Prof. Calvin “Cave” Carson also had the help of a super-vehicle, however — the laser-equipped “Mighty Mole” he designed to travel on or in land and water.
Unlike several of DC’s other uncanny teams, Cave Carson’s crew never managed to dig out a permanent place for itself in a series. The only tryout issue that even tempted me was this one, and that was because of the paradoxically cool-looking Lava Man featured on the cover.
I guess I had a thing for burning red monsters, including Marvel Comics’ Dragoom, the Challengers of the Unknown’s Volcano Man, and Space Ghost’s first foe, the Heat Thing.
Premiani’s relatively “realistic” artistic style was an asset for the subterranean adventurers.
“The man who fled two countries to escape political persecution and who briefly found a home in the United States has been claimed by comic book scholars in three countries, with fans all over the globe,” observed Glen Cadigan in TwoMorrow’s Teen Titans Companion.
The countries he escaped, by the way, were fascist Italy and fascist Argentina. You could find some monsters there too.
Bob Doncaster wrote: The center of the earth is more crowded than the freeway at rush hour
ReplyDeleteKlaus Wolf wrote: I've always loved stories set underground and as a kid, couldn't understand why Cave Carson didn't get its own title. Mind you, same could be said for Tommy Tomorrow and the first Suicide Squad.
ReplyDeleteI too was fascinated by lava creatures and other denizens of the deep and the 'mysterious' Batman's cave. Perhaps there's a primaeval fear/fascination built into our collective consciousness of caves and the deep going back to palaeolithic times when early man had to approach caves with caution lest a beast be already occupying. From these dark and dangerous places, myths of devils, monsters and Hell developed.
One story that I particularly remember as a kid was set underground. The setting kind of reminded me of the original Journey To The Centre of The Earth. The 'twist' in the tale was the.....well....I won't spoil it for those who may get their hands on this issue. It was featured in Brave & Bold No.39 Dec/Jan 1961 'Prisoners of The Dinosaur Zoo!' pencils/ink Andru & Esposito.
Philip Rushton wrote: I liked all the original versions. The nice thing about the Haney/Elias run was that the introduction of Johnny Blake gave the team an edgy dynamic that reminded me of the early Fantastic Four — something that was quite unusual at the time for a DC series.
ReplyDeleteBob Bailey:
ReplyDeleteThe early issues written by France Ed Herron were the best. But the artwork was very uneven from Bruno Premiani to Bernard Bailey to Joe Kubert then for it’s last try it settled on Bob Haney and Lee Elias. Good post, Dan.
Sam Kujava:
ReplyDeleteDC tried very hard to make a success of Cave Carson... different writers & artists... the readers were too claustrophobic to enjoy adventures that burrowed underground.
Burns Duncan:
ReplyDeleteSuperhero fans who get into comics from the 1970s forward learn, as part of the roots, that DC at the beginning of the 1950s started a title Showcase as a launching site for new titles like Lois Lane and The Flash. Another new title The Brave and the Bold costarred high-adventure characters like Robin Hood and Silent Knight. After four years, that title switched its format to launching new characters. The titles appeared bimonthly in alternating months.
That suggests a comic every month with a new superhero feature, appearing for the first or nearly the first time.
The problem with that is that DC for at least two generations was a conservative publisher, fiscally speaking, unlikely to put out too many titles in the same genre. In addition to comics with superheroes, there were always humor titles and romance and war titles and westerns. Also there was a mix of monthlies and bimonthlies and DC's own hybrid, semi-quarterlies, comics with a new issue after a month and a half.
The new comics were not just Flash and Green Lantern and Aquaman in his own title. There were also Rip Hunter Time Master and Sea Devils.
Cave Carson Adventures Inside Earth is the answer to the trivia question, "What appeared in The Brave and the Bold immediately after Justice League of America?"