In 1965, Murphy Anderson’s resplendent renderings turned a pair of pairs into a winning hand.
Although the team-ups of Hourman and Dr. Fate in Showcase and of Starman and Black Canary in The Brave and the Bold failed to develop into superhero revival series at the time, they remain highly prized by collectors decades later.
The North Carolina-born Anderson’s smooth, fine-lined work evolved because he’d been influenced by “…many of the slickest artists in the field, including Will Eisner, Lou Fine and Alex Raymond,” observed comics historian Jerry Bails.
In The Brave and the Bold 61 (Aug. 1965), Anderson and writer Gardner Fox gave us Mastermind of Menaces!, a tale in which Starman and Black Canary teamed up to tackle the Astral Avenger’s unforgettable fog-foe, the Mist (who’d first appeared in The Menace of the Invisible Raiders in Adventure Comics 67, Oct. 1941).
The two members of the newly reactivated Justice Society of America had seen some changes since the team’s last adventure in All-Star Comics 57 (Feb.-March 1951).
Florist Dinah Drake, who began her costumed career as a sort of Robin Hood-like outlaw, had finally settled down and married her boyfriend, private detective Larry Lance.
And somewhere along the way, astronomer Ted Knight upgraded his original “gravity rod” into a more potent “cosmic rod,” underlining the character’s similarity to Green Lantern.
“He first put this new instrument to use against the Crime Syndicate of America of Earth-Three, when he returned to action with his fellow-JSAers Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite and Black Canary,” noted a two-page text feature in Brave and the Bold 61. “This was the first time he had worked with the Blonde Bombshell, for he had retired before she began her crime-fighting career.”
Later, via retroactive continuity, the pair’s comradely relationship would be recast as an adulterous affair.
Because the audience for superhero comics had shifted from largely children to largely adults over the intervening decades, that plot twist was fairly predictable.
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteEverything Anderson applied his skills to back then became instant classics; the JSA heroes, Hawkman, The Spectre, Atomic Knights, JLA covers, and inking on Carmine Infantino's Adam Strange and Girl Kane's Atom.
Johnny Williams wrote:
ReplyDeletePredictable but wholly unnecessary in my book. That insistence upon ‘darkening’ the heroic mythos is not de rigueur for something maturing into more adult fare. They didn't have to end up sleeping together, and yes, I am very much aware of the ‘flawed heroes with feet of clay’ approach ushered in by Stan and company over at Marvel.
Still, even given that, some things just didn't Have to happen. There are middle grounds between Pollyanna-ish and darkness.
Now, that said, Murphy Anderson's artwork was nothing short of brilliant on All of the revived JSA heroes' returns to action features - Doctor Fate and Hourman, Star Man and The Black Canary, The Spectre.
Murphy was the perfect artist to bring them up to date, while retaining hints of their Golden Age ‘feels.’
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteHaving only met these GA heroes in the JLA/JSA team ups I was thrilled with these issues of B&B and Showcase. Anderson's art was fantastic
Rocco Giorgio wrote:
ReplyDeleteI have all of those Anderson books. Loved then then love them now.
Btw, Hullabaloo and Shindig were pop music shows for teenagers. This was more of DC's always awkward attempts to be "With It."
ReplyDeleteF-michael Dunne wrote:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that the coupling of Black Canary and Starman was entirely unnecessary. One of the principle problems with comics today is writers are projecting their personal issues into stories.
Now that I have the above off my chest, the Anderson Earth 2 issues in Showcase and Brave and the Bold were some of the finest comics DC published in the sixties.
Now that I have the above off my chest, the Anderson Earth 2 issues in Showcase and Brave and the Bold were some of the finest comics DC published in the sixties.
Wesley Smith wrote:
ReplyDeleteI’ve made a point of trying to collect as many of these issues as possible. I was fascinated the first time I saw a picture of the Justice Society and wanted to know just who these people were.
Orson Welk wrote:
ReplyDeleteIt may have been more realistic AND better characterization if they'd felt an attraction but NOT had an affair. It would've been more mature of them, anyway.
Also, I feel that making Dinah adulterous somehow cheapens the death of Larry Lance in one of my all-time favorite JLA/JSA stories.
Jospeh Lenius wrote:
ReplyDeleteThat's later (post-Silver Age) retconning by writers who were desperate for ideas, and too frequently came up with and went with bad and ridiculous ones. See also Sue Dibny and Iris (West) Allen in regard to their deaths. And also see the "Iris is now from the future," nonsense initiated by the overrated Robert Kanigher either during the Silver Age or immediately thereafter, depending upon where one wants to draw a demarcation line for the SA. And although I (thankfully) never read it, there apparently was that Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborne convoluted "affair" garbage concocted over at Marvel in the early 2000s.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite comics of the 60s were those Golden Age pairings by Fox and Anderson. The JSA members really got to shine in a way that they did not often do when they teamed up with their Silver Age counterparts. The teaming of BC and Starman was unusual because they had never worked together in the old days as far as it was known then. The later reboots that had them having an affair were disappointing--the BC depicted in those books loved her husband and would never have an affair with someone else! And Starman had his own girl friend (who I believe was later shown to be the mother of his son, the later Starman). Even though I like James Robinson's run on the latter-day Starman, I did not care for this change to the GA characters.
Fox, of course, was familiar with Starman and less so with Black Canary(who he had never written in the Golden Age) but you would never have known it from the story. He treated both characters with respect and affection.
Would have loved to see that Dr Mid-Nite and whoever team-up. But, at least Fox and Anderson with Schwartz still at the helm could turn their attention to some classic Spectre stories, which remain among the best Spectre tales ever.
Drew MacDonald wrote:
ReplyDeleteStill wish they had swapped co-stars. I'd like to have seen Fate/Starman and Canary/Hourman teamups.
Todd Spangrud wrote:
ReplyDeleteHis work on the Earth-2 heroes is my favorite of the Silver Age.His art and inking was so distinctive and memorable.DC had so many fantastic artists who lended their talents to the iconic books.But Murphy,one way or another had his hand in most of them. My single favorite issue was Showcase 55. Dr Fate and Hourman battling Solomon Grundy.
Todd Spangrud wrote:Murphy’s art just grabbed me as did Reed Crandell’s in the pages of Creepy and Eerie.The meticulous line work and realism was a great counter to Jack Kirby at Marvel.Whom I dearly loved.
ReplyDeleteVincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteAn old post of mine....
Showcase #55 (March-April 1965) was a dream come true for Silver Age fans who had a sense of comic book history and a hunger for a return of Golden Age heroes and villains in a proper venue....and this book did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, it exceeded expectations.
The creative combination of Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson were perfect choices to bring back four 1940s luminaries; Doctor Fate, Hourman, the original Green Lantern, and the undead man-monster, Solomon Grundy.
The story begins in prologue with a background narrative featuring Grundy, reworked from a page from 1947's All-Star Comics #33. Illustrated by Anderson, this introduction sets a classic tone that would be carried forward as other Golden Agers would emerge, including Starman, Black Canary, and The Spectre.
Anderson's style would match the ambience required to depict these heroes. His work was far more refined than what had been seen in these characters' heyday, but seemed to evoke just the right kind of mood needed in these comics.
Unfortunately, these revivals of the originals were not to be a continuing effort. But they were emblematic of mid-1960s comics, in an environment where there seemed to be no limit to where superheroes were heading, and a growing respect for where they had come from.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteVincent, you are so right about Anderson's art on the books— even though he didn't draw any of these characters in the 40s for DC (unlike Infantino, Kane, Kubert and others), he caught the essence of the characters while drawing in a very slick, modern style that nonetheless harkened back to the mood and feeling of the 40s. It is hard to describe and something that you rarely see. Too often, artists trying to recapture the mood of an earlier era deliberately draw badly as if the art was bad back then. Anderson never did that and, in doing so, created some of the best work of his career.